Orange? Yeah Right!
by Mahande3
Summary: A KimTommy fic that explains a lot, and introduces a new friend. TomKim, KatOther
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Yeah I like the power rangers. Guilty as charged. that's the ONLY charge I'm guilty of. None of this belongs to me, thus I am making no money off anything in this story. Sue me if you want. 50% of 0 is still 0 lol.

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A/N: Just so any of my readers know, this story has been in the making for a long time. I recently finished re-editing some of the content for a better fit IMHO. So check it out and let me know what you think!

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_Pink. Ugh I hate pink. But she likes the color for whatever reason. At least they aren't roses._ He thought as he walked through the hospital hallway. He was carrying a vase of pink carnations to Kimberly Hart in room 113. The stocky gentleman peeked his head around the corner of the door to see if she was asleep, and was surprised to find her deeply engrossed in a magazine.

"You? Reading? Guess that asshole and the coma must have done a bit more damage than I thought", he said with a sly grin.

She looked up at the door with a surprised and happy smile, "Ryan! Sorry, I wasn't expecting anyone to drop by."

"Oh, so you only read when people aren't looking?"

"That's not what I meant smart ass. Come in and sit a few. What I meant was that I was bored enough to pick up a magazine because all that's left on the TV at this hour of the day is that soap opera junk."

He walked into the room and placed the vase of pink carnations as well as his hat, on a table next to the bed.

"Ahh, well I also brought something to liven up the room", he said with a smile.

"Pink carnations? You didn't go into spasms when you bought them did you?"

Ryan fidgeted in his chair and started to scratch himself for added theatrics, "No, but I think I'm starting to break out into hives. Can colors cause allergic reactions?"

Kim reached over and slapped his shoulder, then pulled him closer to plant a kiss on his cheek, "Well I love pink carnations, thanks Ryan."

"No problem, Kim."

She regarded him with a grin. Ryan was almost like the brother she never had. They connected in a way that you really only do with a sibling. He had dark brown hair, but you wouldn't realize it because whenever he would go anywhere his hair was covered by his favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. hat. He also had taken a liking to sporting a goatee, which he had justified due to his belief that his baby face features made him look too young. All in all, Kim thought of him as pretty good looking, she just had never thought of him as anything more than a brother, and she didn't know why.

"Still haven't lost the hat like Roxanne and I told you to huh?"

He smiled back at her, "Nope, and I'm thinking of gluing it to my head just so you two quit nagging me about it. I leave it at home these days when we go drinking. You know, just in case I find another chick at a bar that's completely plowed under and drooling at me."

She gasped at him, "I was NOT drooling at you."

"How do you know? You can barely remember what you were wearing. And, for you, that's saying a lot."

She sat back with a grunt of indignation and folded her arms. Ryan loved to push her buttons and he had gotten quite good at it. Now she remembered why he was always like a brother to her. A pesky, annoying bastard of a little brother whom you couldn't help but love.

"I just came by to talk. The final bit of the hearing was today. I know you didn't have to be there, but I figured you'd want to know what happened to him."

He watched as a slightly pained expression glazed over her face for a moment, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have mentioned it. It was hard enough for you to walk into the courtroom to testify a few days ago, I should have just left it alone."

She put on her brave front and forced a smile for his benefit, "No, it's okay Ryan. I'd like to hear what happened. I want to know that he is getting what he deserves."

She had been in a coma for nearly five years after what happened. The beating she had taken had been bad enough to cause massive internal bleeding. The doctors had called it a miracle that she had survived, but she liked to think that her lost Ranger powers were still there, protecting her. He had testified against Scott, her attacker, as she had been understandably absent. Ryan made sure that he was present during the entire trial, for Kim's sake and for his own satisfaction. He had been determined to make sure that the bastard didn't get away for nearly killing the person that had become his best friend in the entire world.

"His appeal to be let out on parole was denied. Honestly I think it was because of your testimony. He took almost seven years of your life between the coma and the recovery. Only fair that he should be punished more than what you had to endure."

Kim just sat there and smiled at him, glad that he had been there through the whole thing. Ryan had even visited her while she was still in her coma. It was only fitting that he had been the one talking to her the day she woke up. He had been sitting in the chair next to her bed playing a game on his laptop absentmindedly talking to her as he had done once a week ever since she had gone into the hospital. Her first memory of waking up had been her talking a deep breath. Ryan had looked over at her to see her eyes open. He had been unable to speak for a moment before finally saying her name. All she had said was "Hi Ryan" in a weak voice before he had jammed his hand on the call button and all but dumped his laptop on the floor. He had her in a hug with tears streaming down his face before she knew it. Orderlies had come in and gotten him off of her so they could check everything out, but it would have taken every employee in the hospital to have removed him from the room.

For almost the next two years he had been there for her every step of the way, helping her through her rehab. Her father had come to visit a few times but he had his job in California and couldn't be there as much as Ryan had been. Learning to walk again, learning to talk again, it all had been so hard. Having him there with her through it all kept her going. There were times when depression about her condition had set in, but Ryan had been there to lift her spirits and set her back on the right path. Now the whole thing was going to be over. She could go back to some semblance of a normal life.

"You almost ready to leave this place? It's been home for a long while."

"I know, everyone here has been so nice. I feel like I'm leaving one family here, but going home to another

"It wasn't your fault Kim. You didn't deserve it at all. He was just an asshole. But, because it was what you wanted, we supported you instead of keeping you away. Something that I really wish we could do over again."

That made Kim look up at Ryan, her eyes moist with unshed tears, "I'm sorry, Ryan."

He kept his emotions in check, but couldn't help the anger that colored his words, "You have nothing to be sorry for, Kim. I'm the one that should be apologizing for not keeping you away from that creep. My best friend got beaten within an inch of her life and put in a coma. Then had multiple surgeries to stop internal bleeding, not to mention more bruises than the moon has craters."

The memories from that night washed over him like a tidal wave. In his mind he went through the whole night over again. The panicked phone call at three in the morning. The yelling and screaming he had heard from the street. He even went through the 911 call he had placed while going ninety miles an hour in a thirty zone. He remembered kicking the door down and finding Kim laying on the floor, bloody and bruised. So vivid was the image that he even remembered the sickening way she had been laying on the floor, one arm outstretched with the open flip phone lying just out of reach. That image alone haunted him to this very day. He remembered walking around the corner and into the hallway to find Scott still holding the bloody baseball bat in his hands. The feeling of the punches landing and nasal bones breaking under his knuckles still brought Ryan a delicious satisfaction the likes of which he had never known. The police had handcuffed him and thrown him in jail for the night. It was only after the police had questioned the neighbors that they had correctly pieced together what had happened that night. His father had been pretty pissed off when he picked him up from the police station. Well, until he told his father exactly what had happened. He was shaken from his thoughts by her hand on his cheek.

"Ryan, its not your fault either. If it's anyone's, it's mine."

She thought back to the argument she had had with Scott that night. She had left practice early to pack her things up and move out. Kim had been planning the whole thing for a week, but there is only so much you can pack into a car before it begins to look suspicious. Ryan had wanted to help her but she insisted that her doing it alone was the best way. She was tired of depending on people to fight her battles for her. It had all started with Tommy during her days as a Power Ranger. Oh sure, she had been a formidable fighter in her own right, but whenever she got over her head she had called on her green or white knight to save her. Then it had been Aisha's parents offering to put her up until the end of the school year. She found herself doing the same thing when she had arrived in Florida, except this time it was Scott helping her. They had moved in together to save money on rent and pursue a development of their relationship, but things progressively got worse and worse.

At first, it hadn't been all that bad. She went with him to bars after practice and enjoyed a few drinks while he proceeded to get drunk and hang out with his friends. Oh, he would get jealous every now and then when a guy would hit on her. She would politely refuse the newcomer's advances with a smile. Invariably they never knew when to cut their losses and realize the only answer they were going to get was no. This was always followed by Scott seeing them, running them off and turning to Kim with accusations. She would always calm him down and have to reassure him that she was there to be with him. The whole charade eventually got too tiresome which led to her own adventures in the Sarasota night life, without him.

Her decision to face her situation with a newly longed sense of independence led to her current situation. He had returned home before she was fully packed and gone. The argument had been long, loud and vicious. She never saw him grab the bat. It was a testament to the human race and its tenacity that she had survived the events of that night. She had fought countless evil minions and monsters and for what its worth, come through relatively unscathed. Yet, caught off guard by a man nearly twice her size holding a forty inch piece of ash wood, she had been helpless.

"I should have let you help me, Ryan. I tried to do it all on my own and I didn't see it coming. I should have let you, and Cory and Kyle help me move all my crap out of there and been done with it but I was just so stupid about the whole thing..."

Ryan got up, sat on the bed next to her, and wrapped his arms around her when she leaned into his embrace.

"Well that's all in the past now. We don't blame you for not listening. We get enough shit wrong in our own lives that it's quite understandable", he said with a chuckle. "None of us saw this coming either. If we had, I think we would have protested a bit more than we did."

He paused his train of thought to kiss her on the top of her head and tighten the hold he had on her. Kim knew he loved her, as much as anyone else in the entire world loved their REAL sister. And lucky for her, Ryan was the kind of guy who wasn't afraid to let it show. He was just as chauvinistic and manly as the rest of the male population of the world, but when she needed it, he was her rock and her teddy bear all rolled into one.

Ryan spoke with his lips still partially touching her head, "I know you are moving back to California as soon as you get out of here and I understand why you're doing it. I just wish I could make you change your mind. What am I going to do without my best friend? Who will I shrink wrap my brothers car doors closed with? Who will I scare the shit out of with rubber snakes in the guest bed? Most importantly though, who will be there when **I** need the shoulder to cry on?"

She held tight to him as he laid back against the raised head portion of her hospital bed. Kim listened to his heartbeat as her head came to rest on his chest. She would probably miss these moments with him the most.

"Well it wasn't an easy decision. I love all you guys here. Who would have thought that I'd find a second family in a bar of all places. After my parents got divorced I thought I'd never feel like part of a family again until I had my own. But I found you guys. You and your brother Cory. Kyle and Roxanne. Even Eoin and Kyle's sister were great, but it's like us five made a team, a family."

She sighed and thought to herself for a moment, _Why is it always five? Kyle, Roxanne, Ryan, Cory, and Kim... god that's scary. I once again found a group of four people that damn near complete me. Maybe five has some sort of cosmic significance or something. Zordon would know._

Kim briefly remembered back to the day she walked into the bar in question. Hammerhead Reds was a family bar during the day and a nice place to kick back and watch sports, play darts, and shoot pool in the evening. The night she came in though she definitely had other intentions. She had just gotten done with gymnastics practice and more importantly, another fight with Scott. The only thing she was looking for that night was some comfort in a glass. After a lengthy stay and a slightly longer bar tab, Rick the owner of the bar, made Ryan sit down next to her that night and make sure she was okay. He had seen her bar tab laying on the bar top and made some sly comment about not knowing that a one hundred pound girl could pack away so much alcohol. The rest of the night was a bit fuzzy.

Ryan told her later that she was all over him for the rest of the night, but not in the way he wanted. She hadn't been aware of it at the time, but Rick had placed next to her what was probably the only man in the entire bar that wouldn't take advantage of a woman so drunk she needed an entire weekend to get her equilibrium back. He had an almost knightly sense of chivalry when it came to certain things. Just like Tommy. That was a name that took her back. She hadn't thought about him in a long while. He reminded her a lot of Tommy. But while Tommy was mostly serious, Ryan was mostly a joker. The big thing similar between them however was their care for their friends, determination to protect those friends, and their sense of honor. Ryan would normally have no problem with a beautiful woman hitting on him, but without her wits about her, his nature had been to protect rather than get her naked.

"Hey down there", Ryan said as he waved a hand in front of her face. "Earth to Kimberly. Where'd you go? I thought I was the one with a short attention span."

Kim smiled and looked up at him, "Sorry, just lost myself in thought for a moment"

Ryan laughed, "I thought you fell asleep for a moment there."

"For a moment?"

"Then I remembered about the cute little snore you have when you sleep."

"The only reason you know about that is because of our friend Captain Morgan", she said as she slapped him lightly on the side.

She didn't remember leaving Reds that night, but she would never forget the next morning. Evidently sometime around two in the morning, she tried to leave and Ryan had followed her into the parking lot. She was stumbling and weaving her way to her car like Jackie Chan from "Legend of Drunken Master". She had leaned up against her car to fish her keys from her purse, only to be held there and have Ryan fish them out and keep them. He had dangled the keys from his fingers and scolded her a bit for trying to drive. Proclaiming to her that it was for her own good, he tried to drive her home. Halfway there however, she had said that she was afraid to go home, so Ryan took her back to his place. He offered to sleep on the couch and let her take the bed, but she wasn't having it and told him that two responsible adults could share a bed without anything sexual coming of it. She was right, but when she awoke the next morning, she found herself in Ryan's arms and both of them half naked. He apparently had gotten cold during the middle of the night and gotten under the covers with her, only to have her unconsciously snuggle up to him, attracted to the body heat. She awoke first in the morning and in a still half drunken haze, thought the worst and panicked. It took about fifteen minutes to calm her down but he succeeded. After a nice hot shower and a liberal amount of caffeine, he told her the whole story over breakfast. Ever since then they had been friends, often accused of being together too, by anyone who didn't know them.

"Our friend?"

"Well, yours", she giggled. "He and I haven't been friends since that night. Just like Rick's blaster shots have sworn you off of Jagermeister, and we both stay away from tequila."

"I'm just disappointed that it took all those drinks to make you want to come onto me, and here I thought I was a good looking guy"

"Ryan you ARE good looking. Your timing just sucks."

"So would it be bad timing to tell you I've got a hard on right now?"

She gave him a shocked look and slapped him on the chest, "Ryan!"

"Sorry, I've got a hot chick in bed with me. I can't help it if a hot chick in Hello Kitty pajamas turns me on."

She slid up his body to cuddle closer with him. In doing so, she brushed against his crotch with her leg a bit and realized he was telling the truth. She looked at him and turned a bright red color, but also got a mischievous gleam in her eye.

"I can't help it either", she said with a sultry tone in her voice as she climbed onto his lap and straddled him.

Ryan groaned, "Kim what the hell are you doing? This is like wrong in SO many ways. I feel like such a Kentucky redneck."

That comment made her laugh and she looked him straight in the eyes, "I just wanted to do something to thank you for saving me the night that son of a bitch put me in here."

Ryan looked at her wide eyed and opened his mouth to say something, but never got a chance as Kim kissed him full on the lips. Ryan responded in kind after a moment and turned it into a full french kiss. After a moment Kim pulled back with a scowl on her face.

"What?" he said.

"You were right. Don't get me wrong Ryan, you're a great kisser but it felt like kissing my brother."

"Well do me a favor and get off your brother's lap."

She looked at him for a moment and self consciously turned bright red. She swung her leg off of him and laughed at him.

"It was actually kind of enjoyable even if it was with my pseudo sister, and besides, that's the most action I've gotten in months."

He gave her a sly grin as he got off of her bed. Ryan sat back down in the chair next to the bed just as the door opened and Kimberly's doctor walked in.

"What's all the commotion in here?"

Ryan looked at him with a straight face, "Sorry Doc, she wanted a romp in the sheets before she left."

Kim gasped, "Ryan! Sorry doctor. He hasn't had his medication today and I forgot his leash. I'll try not to get any hair on the furniture."

Ryan sat back into the chair with a glare in her direction.

The doctor grinned, "See that you don't Ms. Hart. I'll have an orderly come by sometime in the next couple hours with your release papers, and then you can leave tomorrow as planned."

"Thank you Dr. Evans."

"No more romping Ms. Hart", He said with a wave and a knowing grin, as he exited the room and walked down the hallway.

"So, where did you plan on going to anyway, Kim? Didn't you say your dad moved out of Angel Grove?"

"Yeah, he moved to a town called Reefside last year. I told you he got into real estate after he and mom separated, right? Well, he found a smaller place in Reefside that would suit him. Mom left for France with her new husband and I'm still here in Florida, so he sold the house in Angel Grove and moved up there. He said it was too big of a house for just him in it."

"You going to move back in with him?"

She wrinkled her face like she had caught a whiff of road kill, "No, I would just feel too weird about that after being on my own for so long. He is going to pay for my rent in the meantime though, until I can get a job and start paying him back."

"So Reefside it is. Did he find you an apartment, or you gonna have to do some hunting?"

"He got me a cheap house to rent. I just need to move the stuff from here to there. I'm gonna rent a U-haul and just drive."

That statement gave him a bit of concern, "Kim, I don't know where Reefside is, but it IS in California. Sarasota, Florida to Reefside in Cali? That's a lot of mileage, too much for me to let my big sister do it herself."

"You want to come with me?", she asked with a surprised expression.

"Yeah sure, I've never been to California. Besides, on the way there we can stop by in Vegas and see a few shows", He said with a leering grin.

"You're horrible Ryan."

* * *

The trip to Reefside started later that week and was pretty uneventful for the two. Other than the occasional rainstorm or two, and of course their stop in Vegas, they made pretty good time. Ryan had dragged her to one of the topless shows in Vegas and had a grand time. She had quickly fallen in love with the costumes and Ryan of course with the craftsmanship of the local plastic surgeon. Staying the night in Vegas had been expensive but well worth the experience for the both of them.

"Can we get something to eat? I'm starving."

"You ate this morning when we left Sacramento."

"Yeah, but it's almost lunch time and that breakfast the hotel had wasn't that good."

"But we are almost to my new apartment."

"You've waited this long to see it, it isn't going to change much in another hour. Besides, you don't have any food there."

"Ryan, you're starting to sound like Rocky. I thought Cory was the pig of the family?"

"He is, but I still need food. Being this damn good looking requires a lot of calories", he said with a smug grin and a nod in her direction.

She rolled her eyes and then put them back onto the road ahead of her, "Oh good lord you lay it on thick sometimes."

He ignored her verbal jab, "Rocky huh? As in your friend that you found out hurt his back when you went back to Angel Grove for Trini's funeral four years ago?"

"Yup, that's him. He had a reputation of being the local garbage disposal. Hey there's a place. Hayley's Cyberspace. The sign says it has food and smoothies, plus computers."

"Perfect, I need to check my bank account and e-mail, too."

Kim pulled the truck into a parking space and walked inside. Ryan was right behind her and whispered into her ear as he walked through the door.

"Wow, I guess the good lookin' redhead behind the counter must be Hayley."

Kim looked back at him and playfully slapped him in the stomach, "Behave."

Ryan just smiled, "Yes, ma'am"

Kim and Ryan sat at the counter and waved Hayley over.

He smiled at her as she laid down napkins on the bar for their drinks, "Hey there, Hayley!"

Hayley looked at the both of them with a puzzled look, trying to figure out who they were before looking directly at Ryan, "Do I know you?"

"No, but this is Hayley's Cyberspace, I just assumed your name was Hayley."

Kim finally ended Ryan's playtime out of pity for their gracious hostess, "Ryan, didn't I tell you to behave?"

"Right, sorry."

Hayley smiled at the couple and placed two menus in front of them, "Well actually, you happen to be right. What can I get for you?"

Ryan looked down at the menu and motioned for Kim to go first.

"I'll have a strawberry-banana smoothie."

"And for you?"

Ryan looked up at her, "I'll have a dragon fruit smoothie and a basket of chicken fingers please."

"Coming right up", Hayley complied as she ran a ticket for the kitchen in the back.

Behind them sat three of the establishments regular customers in primary colors. Conner and Kira earnestly explored their textbooks while Ethan, at a computer, explored a world of a completely different sort.

"Yes! Level thirty-three already! Man I'm gonna beat this game in record time."

Conner rolled his eyes at Ethan, "I'm telling you Kira, if we don't find a way to unplug that boy he's going to end up with a microchip in his head."

"I don't know Conner, with the way he comes up with some stuff and the way he can do math in his head like he does, I'm beginning to think he has one already", she said with a smile.

"Very funny guys", Ethan said. "This new game I discovered is pretty cool though. It's got different class and race combinations that make it really fun to play. Plus its online so I can play with like hundreds of other people all at once!"

Ryan's ears perked up at the mention of an online game and he turned his chair in Ethan's direction, "Sorry to eavesdrop, but what game are you talking about?"

Ethan turned and looked over at him, "It's called Everquest. Its awesome!"

"Really? They have EQ here?"

Kim looked over at Ethan, "Great going, whoever you are. Not only did you just find a friend, but you probably just guaranteed that my unpacking will take twice as long because Ryan will be spending half the time here playing Everquest."

He looked at Kim with an evil grin, "Only until you get your cable installed. I brought my laptop with me."

Ryan got up with his smoothie in his left hand and walked over to Ethan with his right hand extended, "My name is Ryan, the grumpy one at the counter is Kimberly."

Ethan smiled up at the man, "My name is Ethan, and my friends at the table are Conner and Kira."

Ryan nodded in their direction, "Pleasure to meet you."

Conner decided to start the conversation, "So I take it you play this game too, or at least know of it."

Ryan nodded, "Yeah I play it. In fact I have two level eighty characters that I play in a top end guild. We do some of the really hard raiding stuff."

Ethan went wide eyed, "Two? Wow, you must play a lot."

"Not a lot. Just have for a long time. The game has been out there for like seven years and I started playing pretty soon after it came out. They keep adding expansions and stuff."

Conner laughed, "Hey, there's something you don't see everyday. A role playing game that Ethan didn't know existed."

Kim chose that moment to interrupt, "Well sorry to interrupt but Ryan and I need to be going. He needs to go back and eat his food so I can see my new house before it is destroyed by the natural forces of erosion."

Kira and the two boys turned their heads toward Kim as she spoke.

"Just moved here?", Kira asked.

"Yeah, we literally just rolled into town from Florida where I had been doing gymnastics. All of my stuff is in our truck in the parking lot. I'm moving back to California to be closer to my father. He lives here in Reefside."

Ryan nodded to the teens, "Yup and I'm here to help her unload this huge truck of clothes into her new place. After that, I go back to Florida."

"You know that truck is not all clothes Ryan. I swear sometimes I feel I put up with too much abuse from you."

Ryan just smiled at her, "Hey, ya love me, so I can get away with it."

Kim rolled her eyes and turned towards the bar top halfway, "Yeah, yeah. Come on Ryan, scarf it down so we can get going. Nice meeting you three."

Conner spoke for the group, "It was nice meeting you two as well. See you around."

Ryan cast a parting glance at Ethan, "I'm sure I'll be here later. I'll show you some of the better areas to go, AND I'll log on my account so you can see some of the awesome stuff in the game."

Ethan practically beamed with excitement, "Ohhh, I can't wait! Later, man!"

Kira leaned over the table halfway in front of Conner to look at Ethan, "They seemed like a nice couple."

"Nahh, doesn't seem like they are a couple, just friends."

Kira looked at Conner funny, "Huh?"

"Well think about it. She's moving back to town and he is going home afterward. They fight like two people romantically involved but I'm guessing that's just because they are really close and he likes to antagonize her", he explained.

Ethan looked at Conner like he had grown a third head, "Dude, did you just go all Sherlock Holmes on us? What gives?"

Conner just looked at him and shrugged, "Ethan, just because I'm a dumb jock doesn't mean I don't pay attention. Besides, of the three of us, I'd say I'm the most socially inclined person here."

Kira rolled her eyes and went back to her textbook, "Well just so long as you don't get a big head about it."

* * *

Kim waited for Ryan to finish the food he had ordered and then ushered him out the doorway. She was in a hurry to drop most of the stuff off at her new apartment tonight so she could see her father the next morning. Kim got into the drivers seat of the truck and was just about to pull out of the parking space as a black jeep pulled into the space on the trucks passenger side. The two people in it walked right in front of the truck not noticing its occupants. One was wearing white and one was wearing black. As the one in black passed in front of the truck, Kim gasped. _Tommy? No way! No that couldn't have been him. That guys hair was short and spiky. Tommy never would have cut his hair that short. He loved his hair almost as much as I do mine._

Ryan poked her in the shoulder, "Kim? You okay?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah yeah, I'm fine."

"You sure Kim? You're talking to me and not even looking at me. You keep staring at the door to the Cyberspace there."

Kim looked at him and smiled, "Its nothing, lets go."

The two buckled their seat belts and headed out of the parking lot, bound for Kim's new apartment.

* * *

Tommy and Trent entered the Cyberspace and waved at Hayley behind the counter before going over to Ethan, Kira, and Conner.

Ethan looked up from his game and spoke, "Hey Dr. O, hey Trent."

Tommy came to a stop at the table and rested his hands on the back of any empty chair, "Hey guys. We need to go back to the lab. I want to run a few tests on the new Battlizer Armor the Shield of Triumph gives you, Conner."

"Sure thing Dr. O.", Conner replied.

Tommy turned around to Hayley who was trying to get his attention. He walked over to the counter and saw that Hayley had an uneasy look on her face.

"Hayley? What is it?"

"Two people just walked out of here. One was named Ryan and the other was named Kimberly. Now I'm not completely sure, but this Kimberly looked a LOT like what you've told me and what I've seen of your Kimberly from High School."

Tommy's eyes went wide in shock. _Kim! Here! Oh boy, what did I do to deserve this twist of fate?_

"You're sure?"

"No, Tommy I'm not. That's why I said I'm not. But it does look a lot like her. I just wanted you to know incase you saw her in here and it turned out not to be her. Wouldn't want you making a fool of yourself to a stranger."

Tommy grinned at her, "Yeah, that would be awkward wouldn't it? Thanks for the heads up, Hayley."

"No problem."

"Hey, we are going back to the lab to test Conner's new armor. Can you leave for a bit to come with us? I could use your help running the tests."

"Sure, I'll leave one of my employees in charge."

"Great, lets get going."

* * *

"Hey Kim?" He shouted.

"Yeah?"

"Which room is this heavy ass chair going in? And please say somewhere close cause I think I'm going to fall over soon."

Kim laughed and yelled inside from the back of the truck, "Put it in that first room, the one that's right next to the kitchen."

She turned again to figure out what to unload from the truck next, only to find herself stuck in the moment earlier when she saw that man clad in black walk by the truck.

She whispered to herself, "There's no way that could have been Tommy."

"Woah, wait a tick. Tommy? As in THE Tommy?"

Kim whirled around to find Ryan leaning on the back of the truck waiting for more stuff to put inside. More importantly though, he was waiting for an answer.

"Yeah THE Tommy", she mimicked him. "But like I said, I don't think it was him. His hair was short and spiky. Tommy wore his long like I do."

"Any chance he could have cut it?"

"I don't think so. That was the one thing he was girly about, his hair. It was longer than mine when we dated in high school."

"Is this the same Tommy you had me help write you that awful _Dear John _letter to?"

_Oh god... the letter! I almost forgot all about that horrible thing!_

"Yeah that's him", she sighed.

"Kim, if it IS him then this return home could get a bit heavy."

"Yeah, I've thought of that."

She gave up on the truck for the moment and sat down on the back, dangling her legs over the back next to where Ryan was leaning on it.

"Not to mention that if you two get into an extended conversation he's gonna want to know what happened. Are you ready to tell him everything? It's been a long time since you and he lost contact. I'm sure he is going to want to know exactly what happened, and you've only recently gotten the closure on the whole thing you needed."

"Yeah, I don't think I can yet. But I'll just have to cross that bridge when I get to it. For now lets keep going so we can get this all inside before sunset. If we can manage that I'll order some pizza for us this evening, my treat."

"Excellent. Pizza huh? Well you either know how to spoil a guy or you aren't exactly eating like a gymnast anymore"

She turned back into the truck with a scowl to get a box for him, "Oh bite me."

* * *

She got out of the car with an exasperated sigh. _Jeez, I don't remember California traffic being THIS bad. But then it IS just past rush hour, and I've never been to this city._ She carefully checked her reservation and fished the room key from her jeans pocket. As she opened the door she noticed the clock on the dresser next to the bed and smiled to herself. She walked over to the windows and pulled the drapes back just in time to see the sun setting over the cool California water in the distance. _Well at least the room has a good view._ _I kinda missed the sunsets here. _She turned around and unclasped her hair, letting her golden blonde tresses fall to the middle of her back. Taking a seat on the bed behind her, she took off her shoes and then rolled into a sprawled out position to relax.

"Boy are my dogs tired", she said in an Australian accent and a weary smile.

She never really understood that phrase, but after leaving the ballet school in London for a University in the southern United States to study Marine Biology, she heard it all too often and knew what it meant. However, every time she heard it, it made her laugh just due to the sheer ridiculousness the image implied. Once she had graduated and earned her bachelors degree, she applied and earned a position at a widely known marine biological institute. Sure, although she still did ballet occasionally and kept up with all the ins and outs of her former dream, it wasn't near as often as she had. At one time that had been exactly what she wanted to do out of high school. However, after seeing some of the uglier sides of it at the ballet academy in London, she decided to take on a more mundane field of study. She had recently finished a study done in Madagascar with Dr. Hall. When she got back to the institute, she was given the opportunity to do a minor study on her own. Solo projects, no matter how small, meant that they trusted her to make the right decisions on her own. This assignment was a chance to prove herself to the institute and she intended not to betray their trust. The location of the study just happened to be an added bonus. She decided early on after taking the assignment that she would have to give in to nostalgia a bit and look up some old friends.

Kathrine Hillard had been sent to Reefside, California.

* * *

In another dimension somewhere, a lone figure stood looking at a screen of information. He was bathed in an eerie light as he manipulated the controls and found something interesting. He emitted a raspy sigh of glee and hit a button on his console.

"Elsaaaa, report to me now."

A slight woman with a fierce look and evil demeanor entered the room as the double doors off to his right opened.

"You summoned me my master?", She said with a slight bow.

"There is a power source showing on my scanner. It is large enough to possibly be a dino gem. Do something productive and send some Tyrannodrones to retrieve it. And Elsa, you had better not fail me."

Elsa exhibited a sly smile,"It shall be done my lord."

She turned toward the door with a snap and exited the room, set upon her task.

Mesogog returned his gaze to the console with an evil hiss, and waited for the next phase of his plan to unfold.

* * *

"Okay Conner, you can power down now, I think we have all the data we need", said Tommy

Red light burst from all around the Red Ranger's body as he released the power and sent it falling from his body in shards.

Hayley turned around in her chair and looked at Tommy, "This new armor is really really powerful. I don't think we have even seen a tenth of what Conner is now capable of. This could be exactly what we needed to finish Mesogog off once and for all."

Tommy looked at her with a grin of satisfaction, "Good to hear that, the day he's gone is the day we can all sleep easy again."

Suddenly, a beeping noise began to come from Hayley's computer. Loud and insistent, she pushed a few buttons on the keyboard to cancel the alarm and see what the problem was. The computer responded by bringing up a map of Reefside, and a blinking red light in the lower lefthand corner of the map.

Tommy walked over to stand behind Hayley's chair, "What is it Hayley?"

"I don't know, but its a power source whatever it is."

"Another dino egg?"

"It's a bit more powerful than that, it could be a gem."

Tommy turned around facing the four teenagers, "Go check it out. If we can get this reading then so can Mesogog. It's a safe bet that he's already sending lackeys to get it. I'll join you if you need me."

"We're on it Dr. O", Conner said. "Ready guys?"

"DINO THUNDER, POWER UP! HA!"

"WHITE RANGER, DINO POWER!"

Now morphed, the four Rangers sped out the cave entrance on their bikes and ATV. The place they were headed, was Kimberly's new back yard.

* * *

Ryan and Kim sat in folding deck chairs on her new back porch enjoying their pizza and good conversation.

"I still can't believe you grabbed my boob like that, I mean, we were in public!"

"Hey its not like I've never done it before. Inside a topless Vegas show isn't exactly a place people are paying attention to the crowd. Besides you got your revenge by a slap to the head if I recall correctly."

"At least you didn't dive face first into them like you've done to Julie."

"Twice."

"Twice?"

"Yeah you weren't there the first time, Cory was behind me and I thought he was gonna flip out."

Kim grinned and took another bite of pizza.

"Kim what the hell is that?"

She looked down at her plate, and took a page from Ryan's playbook, "Umm, pizza?"

She looked up at Ryan with a grin and got a glare for it.

"Hah Hah, no dippy, out there, in your backyard."

Kim looked through the screened in porch to see what Ryan was pointing at. A faint orange glow coming from the base of a bush that was along the back property line drew her attention.

"I don't know. Maybe some kid left his toy under the bush."

"I'm gonna go find out what it is", he said as he opened the screen door to her porch.

"Ryan be careful, there could be snakes in the bushes."

"Kim need I remind you where I'm from? In Florida there's snake in EVERY bush", he replied with a laugh.

Ryan opened the screen door and walked silently out to the property line and eyed the bushes carefully. He stooped down to see what was giving off the glow, but as he reached for it something grabbed him on the shoulder.

"JESUS!" Ryan yelled as he recoiled his hand and turned quickly to face his attacker.

Kim jumped back a few paces and screamed as well.

"GOD KIM! Thanks for scaring the shit out of me!"

"Sorry Ryan, usually you can tell when people are around you."

"Yeah but not when I'm distracted by something. No touching people that are wary of being bitten by shit!"

She threw up her hands, "Sorry sorry! So what is it?"

"The glowing eyes of a snake, I don't know, I was just about to see when you grabbed my shoulder and made me run a line in my fucking underwear."

Kim couldn't help but howl in laughter at his comment.

"Yeah yeah, yuck it up", Ryan said as he turned again to the bush and reached his hand down towards the glowing object. Ryan grabbed a lower part of the bush and shook it hard.

"What was that for?"

"Well, if that had been a snake, it would have moved. I guess it isn't."

Kim smiled and turned her attention back to the bush in question.

As he reached in, he made sure to listen for a snakes movement or anything else that might decide to bite his hand. _No sense in letting Kim be able to say "I told you so!"_ As his fingers made contact with the item and he whipped his arm out quickly to prevent said unknown animals from harming him, an orange glow raced up his arm and engulfed his body momentarily. Shocked by it, Ryan yelped and released the stone, only to fling it into the backyard and toward Kim's porch behind him.

"What the fuck was that!" Ryan gasped.

Kimberly's eyes grew in concern, "Oh God, did something bite you?"

Ryan looked up at her and saw the fear in her eyes, "No no, that rock... it... it's like it sent a surge of energy through me!"

Ryan turned around and stood up. He and Kimberly walked to where the object now lay and bent down to study it.

"Scary thing is Kim, I think I liked it."

Kim watched Ryan with wide eyes as he reached down and grasped the rock in his hand. Ryan did not receive another pulse of energy, but when he brought his hand up and opened it, the strange orange rock was glowing.

"I'm no paleontologist, but this thing looks old, really old."

"What was that power it sent through you?"

"I have no idea. I think I'm gonna look up some local paleontologist online at the Cyberspace tomorrow. See if I can find someone who can tell me what this is."

"Alright, you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine Kim. Lets see about getting the rest of your clothes and other stuff unpacked."

Kim and Ryan walked back to the porch and back inside. The whole way Kim was mothering Ryan, unsure if he was as okay as he said he was.

As they walked inside, four figures, three on bikes, and one on an ATV, rolled up and strolled into her backyard.

* * *

Ethan got off his Raptor Cycle with an energy meter stretched out in front of him. Seeing nothing, he turned to Conner.

"Is this the place, Conner?"

"These are the coordinates Hayley gave me, are you getting anything?"

"Not a thing, whatever was here, is either dormant now or long gone."

"Shit! That must mean Mesogog beat us to it."

"Not exactly!", Kira suddenly exclaimed.

Conner turned his head to look at her, "Why do you say that, Kira?"

Kira pointed across the yard, "Because then what are THEY still doing here?"

All four Rangers looked across the backyard to find a group of Tyrannodrones lead by Elsa bearing down on them.

"I was getting a bit bored, but now things should get more exciting", Trent said with a smile.

Conner took point with Ethan and Kira on his right and Trent on his left. He nodded to them and everyone drew their weapons.

"Tyrannodrones attack!" Elsa cried out. She then turned with her scanner to try to find whatever energy source that had led them there.

"Time to go to work", Conner said as he charged the incoming drones with his compatriots right behind him.

The first Tyrannodrone swung high at Conner. Conner ducked and shoved the head of his Tyranno Staff into its stomach, using its speed to vault it up and over Conner's head. Conner stood and quickly blocked to his left, catching an incoming swipe from another drone. He kicked his left foot out and sent the drone flying.

Ethan rushed in with a shield strike to the stomach of the first drone, stunning it, then he lifted the shield and the drone over to his right, crashing it into a drone which was approaching Kira from behind. After dispatching her own drone with a kick, Kira spun around, hearing the crash behind her. Ethan nodded at her and Kira mocked a quick salute with one of her Pteragrips, then both turned and went back into the fray.

After turning to the side of good, where he felt he belonged, Trent always took a secret satisfaction out of beating the shit out of anything Mesogog sent their way. He knew that in a way, he was helping his father get just that much closer to destroying Mesogog and freeing him. Trent started with a few hack and slash maneuvers to put some pain into the drones, after that he quickly switched to hand to hand tactics to spread them out. He then dropped to one knee and back flipped out of the middle to put all of the drones in front of him.

'DRAGO SWORD! ENERGY ARROWS! FIRE!"

Trent swished his sword in all different directions, creating the arrows, then with a final flick of his wrist released them at the drones causing most of them to fall and not get back up. He took out the final two drones with a slash from his sword and a roundhouse.

Conner lunged toward the last of his drones with a kick to the stomach. It doubled over and Conner brought his staff up quickly underneath the drones chin, sending it back flipping over the bushes. A final jab and back kick took care of the other two that had surrounded him. Looking around, he saw that all the others were in the same shape he was.

Kira and Ethan took care of their final few drones with little effort. Kira slashed drones on either side of her with her grips and finished them with a jumping split kick. Both drones went flying as another rushed her from the front. It was met with a well placed roundhouse.

Ethan blocked a strike with his shield as he pulled out his blaster and fired into the drone at point blank range. The drone flew back a few feet and didn't get up again. Four more drones surrounded him and he quickly handled them with a few quick shots in all directions. Ethan raised the tip of his blaster to his lip plate and mockingly blew off the smoke, then he rolled the blaster on his finger like an old western gunslinger before putting it back in its holster and jogging over to his friends.

Elsa who had watched the entire fight from the sidelines rolled her eyes.

"You may have won this round rangers, but not to worry, Mesogog will have his dream!", she said then disappeared along with the fallen Tyrannodrones.

Kira was the first to speak, "Did they get whatever the energy reading was?"

Conner replied, "I don't know. I didn't see any of them with anything. It's possible that they had another lackey grab it and take off during the fight. But we would have seen them take off during the fight, right?"

Conner activated his communicator and spoke into his wrist, "Dr O., what happened to the energy reading?"

"_It dropped off the map just before you got there. That means it was most likely a gem, and whoever has it either is shielding it, or has bonded with it", _Tommy stated.

"Great", Ethan sighed. "Another evil ranger to deal with? Trent was bad enough."

"I don't think it was Mesogog who found it", said Trent.

The Red Ranger looked in his direction, "How do you know?"

Trent continued his explanation calmly, "Because if he had he wouldn't have left the drones here to occupy us. Mesogog knows we can kick the crap out Tyrannodrones by now. He was counting on a quick smash and grab. If Elsa had gotten it during the fight, they would have been out of here in a flash. And if they had gotten it before the fight, they wouldn't even have been here."

"He wouldn't have left a few here to occupy us?", asked Ethan

"A few months ago, I would have said yes. But before I was released from his hold on me I know he was running lower and lower on supplies for drones. He cant just make them out of nothing. Every time we bust some up he teleports them away. He does this to see what he can salvage so he doesn't use as much materials to make more. If he's running as low as I think he is, he wouldn't have left the drones unless there was something to gain."

_"I agree with Trent, Rangers. If Mesogog didn't find it though, we need to find out who did. Report back and we will figure out where to go from there."_

"On our way", replied Conner.

The rangers walked over to their various vehicles and rode away. Unbeknownst to them, they were being watched.

* * *

"Boy the kids in this neighborhood sure do stay up late." Ryan said to Kimberly from where he was looking out the side window of her apartment.

"Oh do they now?"

"Yeah, I just saw four of them stroll from somewhere behind your apartment and walk out front to some dirt bikes and an ATV. At least they were wearing helmets. Its too dark out there to make out anything more than that. They ought to put in some street lights in your neighborhood."

"Sure Mr. Safety, I'll go down to city hall and tell them first thing in the morning."

He shot her a glare, "I'll have you know that I'm all for safety. Take this old bookcase you have for example, if I were to put any books on it I'm sure it would topple right over. And that sucks cause its beautiful and made of nice thick oak. You just didn't take care of it very well."

Kimberly blew into the air to signal her disbelief, "Yeah yeah, I'll have you know that that bookcase was my grandmothers. Sure its old, sure its rickety, but it reminds me of her and I'll probably have it until the day it breaks. It still holds books just fine too."

"Couldn't prove it by the way it looks though", came the mumbled reply.

Kimberly shot him a look, "And you look like you're strong, but I bet you're just a big wuss."

"Wuss, huh? Well come on then little girl. Lets see how big a wuss I am? No bed in here yet means plenty of room to pin your scrawny little ass to the floor."

"You do remember that I was took martial arts and I'm a gold medal gymnast right?"

"Yeah so what? Oh no! Not a back handspring! I surrender!", He mocked her with a wide grin.

Kim turned around to face him and made little horns on her head with her fingers, then scuffed the carpet back with one foot.

Ryan laughed and held his hands out to the side as if shaking a red cape, "Toro toro, woman... bring it."

Kim charged Ryan, wrapping her arms around his waist. Ryan grabbed her around the stomach from behind and fell to a sitting position, placing Kim completely upside down and breaking her grip on his waist. Her head was now between his legs, facing away from him, touching the floor and her legs were flailing in the air to try and wriggle free, but her struggles for freedom were no match for Ryan's grip. Ryan heard her grunts and groans during her attempt to free herself and couldn't help but laugh.

"Need I remind you who wrestled in High School, little girl?"

"Shut up and fight you pussy", came the strained reply.

"Okay, Kim, but you asked for it."

He laid down to his back and quickly rolled her to the bottom to get position on her. She struggled to prevent him getting behind her, but the weight and strength advantage was too great. Then with his chest still on her back, he spun one hundred and eighty degrees to put himself behind her, both of them in a crouched position.

"You like this position way too much, Ryan."

"Don't get any dirty ideas woman, I'm just using it to kick your ass", he said with a grin.

Kim made the first move and pulled his left arm underneath her, knowing she had to get him off her back before he dug in if she was going to win. Ryan panicked for a minute as he fell off her and got rolled to his back. Kim used that moment of distraction to pounce on him from the side. Seeing her momentum, Ryan used it to roll her over again to the bottom, which Kim then used to re-roll herself to the top... and right into the bookcase.

"OW!", cried Ryan. Then he looked behind her to see the bookcase falling on top of them.

"OH SHIT!"

Ryan reacted immediately. He stuck his arms out on either side of Kim to help protect her from the falling bookcase and closed his eyes not wanting to watch the pain come. _Oh shit, this is gonna hurt! That thing has gotta weigh at least two hundred pounds. I was frankly amazed we were able to get it out of the truck, let alone inside. Wait... why hasn't it hit my hands yet?_

Ryan slowly opened his eyes to find Kimberly still laying on top of him, eyes squeezed shut, and the bookcase nearly at a forty five degree angle above them both.

"Umm, Kim? You okay?"

She opened her eyes slowly and looked down at him, "Yeah, I cant believe you caught it."

"Me either, I'm not holding it."

Kim looked at him weird and turned her head to see that he indeed wasn't holding the bookcase. She crawled out from between his arms, then stood up and examined the massive teetering object with amazement.

"What the hell? It's just stopped there in midair!"

Suddenly, Ryan got an idea. Kim watched in disbelief as the bookcase righted itself and came to rest gently against the wall where it had been. Ryan sprang up to his feet and shouted in excitement.

"HOLY CRAP THAT WAS AWESOME!"

"Ryan, what are you talking about that could have broken my back!"

"No, no, Kim! Not that! I did it!"

"Did what?"

"I caught the bookcase! And then I moved it back against the wall!"

"No you didn't."

"So how do you explain what happened? Somehow I've gained like a telekinesis, and I'll prove it."

Ryan outstretched his hand towards Kim's bedroom window. Kim looked on in shock as Ryan's bottle of Mountain Dew floated from its resting place on the windowsill, across the room, and gently into Ryan's hand.

"Holy shit!"

A large smile grew upon Ryan's face, like the kind you would find on a five year old walking into a giant toy store, "Oh I know, Luke Skywalker better watch his fucking back, there's a new sheriff in town!"

"When did you get the ability to do this? You never did anything like this before, right?"

"I don't know, Kim. This is the first time I've had anything like this happen to me. It would have come in handy for dart leagues on Thursday nights. Come to think of it, if I would have known about this earlier, maybe I wouldn't have gotten beaten up so much in middle school. It would have been hard for the bullies to hit me from up against the ceiling", he said with a chuckle.

"Okay so we know you didn't get these powers too long ago."

_Come to think of it, something else strange happened tonight too. I bet its related._ Ryan looked down and pulled the strange orange gem out of his pocket.

"Wow, did you read my mind too?"

Ryan laughed, "No, Kim. Great minds just think alike. After I stopped and thought about it for a moment I realized something else pretty strange happened to me tonight."

"You mean that orange glow that surrounded you when you first touched that thing?"

"Yeah."

"OK you are definitely finding out what that thing is tomorrow."

Kim was once again thrust into an odd situation. _Hell I remember when my life was full of them. This feels WAY too familiar to the old days when I was still a Ranger. I hope this doesn't have anything to do with the Ranger team here. Last thing I need is to get caught up in that stuff again._

Ryan held the gem up in front of his face and studied it carefully, "No shit. I'm not sure whether to be elated or terrified of this thing."

Ryan shook himself from his reverie, put the gem back into his pocket, and looked at Kim, "Okay, lets get your bed in here and put together so you can get some sleep. Something tells me tomorrow is gonna be a really long day."

Kim walked out the room and called back to Ryan, "Look on the bright side though, It'll be really easy to get the mattress and box spring in here."

Ryan thought for a second before pointing at her as she retreated out the door, "I like where you head's at!"

* * *

The next morning Kim and Ryan arrived at Hayley's Cyberspace for breakfast and more importantly, to look up an archaeologist in the area to tell them what the strange gem was. Ryan held the door for Kim and then followed her inside. They looked around to discover that they weren't the first ones to arrive. At their table in the back enjoying various breakfast amenities sat Kira, Trent, Conner, and Ethan. Kim walked to the counter to order a couple muffins and breakfast smoothies from Hayley. Ryan walked over past the table and sat down at one of the computer terminals.

Ryan called out to the Ranger foursome from around the side of his computer monitor, "Well it looks like you kids are up bright and early. Ready for a fun day at school?"

Ethan looked up from his breakfast with tired eyes and smiled weakly at Ryan, "We had a long night, man. We didn't get much sleep."

"Cramming?", Ryan asked.

"Not exactly", Kira supplied.

"That's okay, you wont be the only one dragging ass there today. Kim and I saw some teenagers out last night at god knows what hour riding dirt bikes and an ATV."

Kira was the first to put two and two together, "Were they wearing helmets and body suits?"

"Helmets yeah I saw those. And come to think of it I didn't see any loose clothing on them so yeah they could have been wearing body suits. Why? Are they the local gang or something?"

Conner chose that moment to put his foot in his mouth, "It was us", he yawned.

Ethan, Kira and Trent all attacked Conner with various books and note pads. The few harsh blows he took was enough to reawaken his brain from the half asleep state which it was in.

"Ow HEY!"

Ryan gave them a funny look, "You four are in a gang?"

Ethan Kira and Trent all looked at Conner with scowls, waiting for him to dig them out of the hole he had blasted them into with his mouth.

"No no no, that's just silly, man. We were ahhh... looking for Kira's dog... yeah that's it. He got out and we were trying to help her find him."

Ryan looked at Conner critically for a moment. _Okay Conner obviously made up that response on the fly, whatever it was he doesn't wanna tell you so just shut up and take what he gave you. _

Ryan shrugged and turned back to the computer screen, "Well that was nice of you guys. Did you find him?"

Trent sighed, "Not exactly. We ran into a few friends though. They are always a blast to hang out with."

Ryan laughed at the four teenagers going at their morning routine half awake, "Sounds like you guys had a busy night. I hope you find your dog, Kira."

Kimberly chose then to reappear from the counter holding two smoothies and breakfast muffins for her and Ryan. She set down Ryan's banana smoothie next to his arm for which she received a silent thanks. She then took a seat next to him to see how far he had gotten in his search.

Ethan got up, walked behind Ryan, and looked at the screen over Ryan's shoulder, "So what are you doing here this morning? Getting in some early gaming?"

Ryan smiled and replied, "Well they call it Evercrack for a reason, but I'm thankfully not as addicted to it as I used to be. Kim here would kick my ass if I ever got too involved with it again. What I AM doing is looking for a local paleontologist. I found this cool rock yesterday and it looks really old. I figure someone might be able to tell me what it is."

This time it was Ethan doing the mental math as he looked back at Conner and Kira with wide eyes. _If the energy signature was in Kim's backyard last night,and we didn't get it, and Mesogog didn't get it, maybe Ryan did._ He turned again to Ryan and asked, "Can I see what you found?"

"Sure", he replied. Ryan reached into his pocket and pulled out what Ethan quickly realized was an orange dino gem. Ryan held it out to Ethan, who gently took it with two fingers and turned again towards Conner and Kira.

"Heres a guy, Ethan. His name is Anton Mercer. It says here that he has a home in this area. Maybe I can give this guy a call."

Conner got up and walked over next to Ethan and was followed closely by Kira.

Conner looked down at Ryan with a stoic expression, "Actually Ryan, our science teacher at school has a degree in paleontology and a minor in archaeology. Maybe you can drop by our school today and ask him. Anton Mercer is a big business man here and might not have time to see you anytime soon. Besides, I think Dr. O may have seen something like this before."

Ryan turned to the teen and smiled, "Sure, I think I'll do that. Can't hurt. And if he doesn't, I can always go see Dr. Mercer about it later."

Ethan smiled as Ryan agreed to Conner's proposal and handed the orange gem back to Ryan, "Yup, sure can. Okay, well we need to get going, we don't want to be late for first period."

"Alright guys, seeya later. And thanks for the help Conner. I'll stop by today to see your teacher."

Conner nodded to him and led the four rangers out the door, the last of which was Kira who waved goodbye on her way out. Ryan turned to Kim and snatched a muffin out from in front of her by jedi pulling it into his hand.

"Wow, you know, that never gets old!", Ryan said with a huge grin.

Kim smacked him across the shoulder, "Don't do that in public! Who knows who could be watching? Besides, you are starting to annoy me with it."

"Never let your enemy know your weaknesses my young padawan", he said while grinning evilly at her.

Kim looked at him with a stern expression. After they had gotten Kim's bed all set up and ready for sleep, Ryan had taken it upon himself to provide a bit of entertainment by telekinetically flying the green stuffed dragon Tommy had gotten her in high school, all around the room. While normally she might have thought that that was cute, the thing that made it annoying, was that he had been making roaring noises the whole time and dive bombing Kim.

"Oh these powers are a fucking hoot Kim. I'm like a kid in a candy store."

"You were always a kid, we were just usually missing the candy store", Kim replied with a roll of her eyes.

Kimberly couldn't help but notice sometimes at how many faces Ryan seemed to have, and the scary thing was how much it reminded her of ALL her male ranger teammates. At one moment he was like he was now, carefree, excitable and curious, just like Rocky. In fact, he spent a LOT of time acting like Rocky, just without the huge appetite. Then the next moment he could be quiet as a mouse, brooding, and almost invisible, blending into the background like Adam always was. He was usually only like that when something was wrong though. Evidently he had grown out of most of his natural shyness before she had met him. A small part of him even had a great intelligence like Billy. It wasn't nearly as well pronounced, but it was there. And then there was the part it seemed that she was drawn to the most. He could be dead serious, work out difficult problems, and seem ready to lead troops into a war with confidence, a born leader, just like Tommy. Seemed no matter how much she tried to ignore it, everything seemed to come back to Tommy.

"You done with your muffin?"

"Huh? Oh yeah", she said. She handed him the wrapper and shook her head to remove the cobwebs after Ryan had gotten up to throw their trash away.

"Come on Kim, lets go find out what this rock is", he said to her with a smile.

"Right behind ya."

They both heard the front doors creak open at the same time, and turned their heads simultaneously. Suddenly Ryan's world went into slow motion as he saw her walk in. Kat's golden hair sashayed back and forth halfway down her back as she walked. She was wearing a pair of light pink cut off shorts and a light blue tee shirt. _Holy crap shes gorgeous!_ He watched her walk across the room and to the counter to order.

Kim looked at the woman in disbelief, then looked over at Ryan who wore a somewhat shell shocked expression on his face. _Oh wow, he's got it bad. Wait a sec, if she's here, then that means that that WAS Tommy I saw before. And that means she and Tommy must be still together._ Kim's heart sank as she realized what Kat being here would mean. They had been pretty well involved when she had gone back for Trini's funeral, not to mention their little trip to Muranthias. Ending her mental pity party, she decided to gather herself up and go say "hi" to her old friend anyway. Just because Kat was dating or maybe even married to the man that she had let go back in High School didn't mean she was the enemy.

"Come on slack jaw, I'll introduce you", she said while lightly slapping Ryan in the stomach with the back of her hand before walking away.

Ryan shook himself back to reality, picked his jaw off the floor, and grabbed Kim by the arm before she could get very far, "Wait a sec. You know her?"

"Yes, I do, and before you get any ideas from the head of yours that isn't so smart, she is more than likely involved with someone and maybe even married. Now come on."

She took Ryan by the hand and guided him over to Kat who was now sitting at the counter, waiting on her order to be filled.

"Kat?"

Kat turned her head at the mention of her name and was pleasantly surprised to fine none other than Kimberly Hart. She beamed a big smile in her direction and bounced up out of her chair and towards her friend.

"Kim!"

Kimberly's face burst into a huge smile. She dropped Ryan's hand and was rewarded with an enthusiastic hug from Kat.

"Wow! What are you doing in Reefside? Do you live here now?"

"Actually, yes. I just moved here, back from Florida. My dad got a house here about two years ago so I decided here was better than being alone in Angel Grove. I wouldn't know anyone there anymore. What about You?"

"I just got here myself. I'm going to be here for a couple days doing some research. I dropped the ballet thing and came back to the states to get a degree in Marine Biology."

"Oh wow, I never took you for a science girl. Billy would be so proud."

"Thanks, Kim."

Kat looked over Kim's shoulder at the man behind her, then back to Kim, "So who is your boyfriend here?"

Kim smiled and turned halfway to allow Ryan into the conversation, "Sorry, I forgot my manners for a moment. This is my friend Ryan. He's not my boyfriend, he's more like my brother than anything. We agreed long ago that we know entirely too much about each other now for it to be anything but a bit weird. He's from Florida and came out here with me to help me move everything into my new apartment. He will probably have to leave in a few days."

Kat listened with a smile. _That's too bad. He's pretty good looking._

"Ryan? This is Katherine Hillard. Kat? This is Ryan Schrock", she introduced her two friends to each other and watched as they made the usual pleasantries to each other.

Ryan gave Kat a big smile and extended his shaking hand to shake hers. He took her dainty hand into his and marveled at how soft they were, "Pleased to meet you Kat. Someone in Florida had to watch over this little girl and I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Our relationship is for the best the way it is anyway. She is far too beautiful for me to have ever gotten anywhere with her otherwise."

As he shook Kat's hand, she noticed how the smile reached his eyes and how his hat shaded his eyes and made his gaze almost look even deeper. _Oh my god, he's got a gorgeous smile! I'd say he's being pretty humble about his looks. Strong hands too, I wonder if he wouldn't mind using them on other areas of me sometime. WOAH! Where did that come from? You just met this guy, take it easy!_

"Nice to meet you too Ryan", She managed to choke out in a heavy Australian accent. Her accent tended to get heavier when she was nervous. She was so lost in his hazel eyes, she wasn't sure where she was at the moment.

Ryan listened to her accept his greeting and reluctantly released her hand, but not her eyes. Her blue eyes kept staring at his and he was quickly getting lost in her whirlpools of color. The thing that had done him in however was her accent. He was a complete sucker for English and Australian accents.

Kim picked that moment to break them out of their collective stupor with a loud cough. Both of them blinked a few times and turned to Kim. Kim turned to look at Kat with a pleased expression which caused Kat to blush. Kim's expression turned to one of indifference as she spoke again.

"Are you and Tommy still together?"

Kat shook her head, "No, he and I decided that a long distance relationship wouldn't be much good for either of us. No offense, but after what happened between you and him, it was a pretty obvious decision. We split up just after our... extracurricular High School activities ended, and I went to London for the ballet academy."

"So he stayed in Angel Grove?"

"To the best of my knowledge yes. When I left he had started driving a stock car for his uncle's race team. He was pretty good and they were talking about getting involved in a national racing series. I think they said it was the ASA series."

"Wow, you know what I never made the connection before but it all makes sense now. I saw a guy named Tommy Oliver drive out at the old DeSoto Speedway in Bradenton. The guy was pretty good for a rookie and was constantly raking in top five finishes. He didn't win the race that night and narrowly missed having a shot at the championship in the last race that year, but everyone I know was pretty impressed with him. I had no idea that he and the Tommy you went to school with were the same person."

Kim looked back at Ryan, "Is he still racing?"

Ryan shook his head, "I don't think so. He left after his rookie season which had everyone puzzled. He just kind of disappeared after that."

Having resolved that inquiry, Kim turned back to her old friend, "Well we just stopped in to get some breakfast before heading out for some errands today."

"Me too. I have some research to do off the coast starting this afternoon and I have to get everything ready to go with a charter boat and my equipment this morning", Kat stated.

Ryan chimed in with a proposal, "Well we really need to get going, Kat. But if you'll still be in the area around lunchtime, we can stop back in here, get some food, and the two of you can catch up some more."

Kat replied with a smile, "Sure, that sounds wonderful. Meet back here around noon then?"

Kim responded for both of them, "Yeah sounds good. Okay you party pooper, out the door. Bye Kat."

"Bye Kim. Nice meeting you Ryan"

"You too Kat."

Ryan and Kim walked out the door and got into the truck. She had noticed the way Ryan and Kat almost couldn't look away from one another, and she had also noticed that they had both been red in the face at one point or another in their innocuous conversation. Kim wondered how long it would take before Kat and Ryan ended up seriously going after one another. She smiled and made a mental note to get them together as soon as possible. Ryan deserved someone like Kat after all he had been through and all he had done for her. She was sure the same could be said for Kat.

"What's the smile for?"

Kim looked over at Ryan and the smile grew, "Oh nothing."

"Nothing? Couldn't have been nothing. I know your evil grins as well as you know mine and that one was definitely evil."

"Just trust me, you'll find out."

"Why do I always get scared when you say that?"

Kim gave him a raspberry as she turned the truck and headed for her fathers house a few minutes away.

* * *

Conner, Kira, Trent, and Ethan walked into Tommy's classroom before the start of first period to find him at his desk. Tommy looked up from the papers he was working on when he heard the door open and saw them walk in. He put down the red pen he was using to correct a few papers and greeted them while leaning back in his chair.

"Good morning guys. What's up?"

Conner looked at him with a worried expression, "Dr. O, we need to talk. We think we may have found out who got whatever the energy signature was last night."

"Overnight? How did you come by this information?", Tommy asked with a quizzical expression.

Ethan sat on the top of one of the desks behind him and folded his arms in front of him before speaking, "Dumb luck actually. We met two people yesterday at Hayley's. They are pretty nice people. Anyway we saw them again this morning. Their names are Kim and Ryan and Ryan was there to look up local archaeologists in the area because he found a cool rock last night."

Tommy leaned forward and rested his forearms on the edge of his desk with a sigh, "I think I see where you are going with this. What makes you think that they DO have it though?"

"Because we saw it", said Kira. "Ethan asked Ryan to see it and sure enough he pulled out an orange rock. There's no mistaking that it was a dino gem."

"Okay so where are they now?"

"Probably still at the Cyberspace, but they are going to stop by to see you later on today to see if you can tell them what it is", replied Conner. "I told them that you were an archaeologist and could probably tell them."

"Is the gem bonded to him?"

"We don't know. We didn't get any indication that it was or wasn't", said Trent.

They finished their conversation just as the door opened and a few other kids came into the room getting ready for class and taking their seats.

"Okay guys. Thanks for telling me. In the meantime you guys better take your seats, the bell for first period should be ringing soon."

"Okay, Let us know what you find out?"

"I will. In fact, all of you come over to my house tonight and we will see if we can't figure this out exactly and discuss what to do about it. I'll probably only be able to do so much here."

"You got it Dr. O", Conner said.

The Rangers moved to their seats and began pulling their class materials from their bags. Tommy was quite pleased with how things in this situation were playing out so far. He thought about the various scenarios as he sat there watching his students enter the room and prepare for class. _If its bonded with him this will mean we have even more power and another Ranger to beat Mesogog with. If it hasn't then we need to protect it to make sure it doesn't fall into the wrong hands. The hard part is going to be getting him to cooperate. He might not give it up willingly. _Tommy switched his mind to other things and began preparing his lecture for the morning. The first period bell rang and he got back to the business at hand.

* * *

Ryan and Kim arrived at the high school and parked in the guest area. They had gone to see her father this morning and had been amazed to see that he had bought her a brand new metallic blue VW Jetta as a coming home present. She had argued that he had no business buying her such an expensive gift, but he had made a convincing argument to the contrary about her being his daughter and his newly found wealth was his to spend as he saw fit. If he wanted to buy the daughter he loved more than anything a new car then she would just have to take it and make him even more proud of her to earn it. After a short visit and a promise to return soon when things weren't so busy, they left to return the U-haul truck and end up at their current location. They then walked to the main office and greeted the receptionist at the counter.

"Good morning", Ryan said. "We were wondering if we could see a teacher for a few moments. We are old friends of his."

"Is he expecting you?"

"No we wanted to surprise him."

"Well let me call him and ask him if he is in a class at the moment. Which teacher are you here to see?"

"His kids call him Dr. O. He's an archaeologist and paleontologist."

"Ahh yes. The science wing. Yes he is well known here, especially by the female portion of the school."

"Really?"

"Yes he's young and most if not all the female students think he is dreamy", She said with her hands making quotes in the air. She smiled at them before continuing, "He might be a bit out of my age group, but I can't say that I disagree. What is your name sir?"

"Ryan."

The receptionist nodded and dialed the phone. She received an answer quickly on the other end.

"Excuse me sir, but there are two people here to see you. Yes. He says his name is Ryan. Okay. Bye." She turned back to Kim and Ryan, "He will see you in a few moments. First period is about to end and he has second period free. He is in room 304."

"Thank you for all your help ma'am", Ryan said as he and Kim made their way through the door and back out into the school.

Ryan turned to Kim as they walked, "I hope this guy knows what this thing is."

"Well the kids seemed to have confidence in him", she said.

They turned the corner for his hallway just in time to hear the bell ring. Teenagers began pouring out of every doorway. In seconds the hall became a sea of teenagers hustling to get to their lockers or their next class. Ryan and Kim weaved in and out of the teenagers to make it the final four hundred feet down the hall to room 304.

"Holy drowning in hormones, Batman!", Ryan quipped.

Kim couldn't help but chuckle as she waited for all the students in room 304 to file out. Finally after the last student had exited, she walked through the door and led Ryan inside. Her smile immediately dropped as she was stunned, almost as if it was a tazer. Tommy turned his head towards the door to find Kim standing there. Kim was frozen in place. It felt like someone had just kicked her in the chest. Tommy stood in surprise and held the same stunned expression. Ryan looked at them both with a quizzical expression, then all at once he put it all together in his head and joined them in their shocked expression. _Oh holy shit! I recognize him! That's Tommy. He looks like some of the pictures of Kim's I've seen of him. Tommy is Dr. O? No, Doctor Oliver. Having a doctorate in paleontology, he would be a doctor. The kids called him Dr. O. I'm so stupid._

Tommy and Kim's brains had completely shut down from the shock of seeing each other after so long. Ryan knocked himself from his stupor and noticed the two people in front of him were still in it.

"Okay Kim why don't you have a seat here", Ryan said as he led her to one of the desks in the front row.

Ryan turned to Tommy, "Doctor Oliver, I presume?"

Tommy focused his mind but didn't take his eyes off of Kimberly, "Yes that's me, what can I do for you?"

"My name is Ryan, and its pretty obvious you know Kimberly here. I'm a friend of hers from Florida."

Tommy looked up at Ryan with just a hint of rage locked in his face, _Was this the guy? Is this who she left me for in that goddamn letter?_

Ryan took the eye contact and continued, "As much as I know you two would like to have a reconciliation and reminisce, we kinda have another purpose for being here."

The words coming from Ryan's mouth drove Tommy to the task at hand. He sounded a lot like Billy. Tommy watched him as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a glowing orange stone. _Oh yeah. That's a dino gem alright._

"Put that back into your pocket please. I don't need anyone coming in that door and asking questions about it later."

Ryan agreed with a nod and placed the gem back into his pocket.

"Has it bonded with you?"

"Bonded?"

"Yes, it probably would have felt like a mild electric shock with the color of the gem flowing over you."

"Yeah I'd say that happened. Something else weird too."

"Like a special ability?"

"Yes, telekinesis."

"So you can move stuff with your mind?"

"Yeah, like this."

Ryan stuck out his hand and the pen Tommy had been using floated through the air and into Ryan's grasp.

The door to the room opened and in walked four teenagers in red, white, yellow, and blue. Everyone looked up to the door to find none other than Conner, Trent, Kira and Ethan.

"Oh good you made it", said Conner. "We told Dr. O this morning that you'd be stopping by."

"Yes, but I think maybe you should have given us his full name. Not only was it a slight run around in the office a little while ago to find him, but it would have saved a bit of stress."

"Huh?"

Ryan looked at Kim as if asking permission. She stared at him blankly for a moment and then gave a slight nod.

He sat on top of the desk behind her and draped his arm on her shoulder, "Let's just say that Kimberly here knows the good doctor. She was his high school sweetheart."

The four teens' eyes went wide for a moment and Kira knew immediately what was going on.

"And I'm guessing things didn't exactly end very well?", Kira asked with a concerned look.

"That would be a bit of an understatement, yes."

Kira walked over to Kim and rested her hand on her shoulder, "You okay Kim?"

Kimberly looked up at the young woman and gave a slight smile, "Yeah I'll be okay. I'm just still a little shell shocked. I haven't seen Tommy in years, so I never thought I'd run into him here of all places."

Tommy coughed and finally spoke up, "Well not to be rude, but what are the four of you doing here? You guys have P.E. right now and I know Coach Martin is never thrilled about his students being late for a class."

Trent spoke up for them all, "Conner forgot his jacket in here and since we are going to be out on the baseball field today, he figured he would need it. We just came with him on our way out to the field."

Tommy sighed, "Well not that I don't love my students knowing about my past love life but I still have a lot of work to do yet today before the weekend. We can talk about all of this and more tonight at my house."

Tommy was given questioning looks from both parties, but he quickly dismissed them.

"All questions will be answered later. Please just for now lets do what we need to do to get through the day. We have all weekend to satisfy your curiosities."

"What time do you want us to meet you there?", asked Ryan

"Come around seven. Hell, I'll even prepare dinner. No sense being a lousy host."

Ryan nodded and helped Kim out of her chair, "I'll bring her too. I know you two are going to have a lot to talk about."

Tommy nodded his thanks. _He knows something. Not about the gem. About Kimberly and I. Hoo, boy is tonight gonna suck._

Tommy walked out from behind his desk and gave Kim a parting hug while speaking softly to avoid ease droppers, "It's good to see you Kim. I know we have a lot to talk about, and we will, I'm just not so sure I want to do it now with an audience."

Kim nodded against his shoulder, "That's okay, I completely agree. I'm sure it'll get pretty emotional for the both of us."

He released his hold on her reluctantly and Ryan helped Kim out the door as he turned to his pupils.

"So why do we have to be there tonight?", said Trent.

"Because, things have happened that are going to change our team a bit," said Tommy. "The gem has bonded with Ryan."

Conner looked Tommy in the eyes, "So does this mean we have another Ranger?"

Tommy stared at the doorway and replied, "I'm not sure."

* * *

Ryan helped Kim into the passenger seat and walked around to the driver's side. Kim had been chastising herself since she and Ryan left Tommy's classroom. Ryan had taken her keys and driven, figuring she had a lot to think about. About halfway back to her apartment her mental punishment finally led her to words.

"Jesus why didn't I say something instead of just sitting there?"

"I don't know Kim. Can't say I blame you though. That was a very unexpected blast from the past."

"Blast is right. I felt like I got hit by another monster."

"Monster? A monster what?"

Kim gazed out the window and slightly shook her head, "Never mind."

_Hoo boy almost let that one out of the bag didn't you, Kim. So much of my life was left in Angel grove. Its almost a blessing AND a curse that some of it has followed me here. _

Kim stayed silent the rest of the way back to her apartment as did Ryan. Ryan figured that she had just been through a pretty big shock. They had known that Tommy MIGHT be here, but they weren't sure, Kim hadn't gotten a good look at the person that day at the Cyberspace. Last place they expected to find Tommy was in a school teaching with a doctorate behind him. Kim had still thought he was off being a race car driver even though Ryan had said he wasn't in a touring series anymore.

Ryan pulled into the parking lot in front of Kim's apartment complex. He shut off the engine, took his Earnhardt hat off and ran his fingers back through his hair with a sigh.

"We are back Kim. You okay now?"

"I'm not sure. I didn't expect to see him again. Least of all here. I mean we knew it was possible that was him that day but that was only a fleeting thought."

"Yeah I had gone over that same thing in my head on the way back."

"Well it's done now. Maybe when I go with you to his house tonight more will get said from this end of the conversation."

Ryan nodded at her, put his hat back on and opened the car door. Kim opened her door as well and both got out. Ryan clicked the doors locked over his shoulder as he walked up the small walkway to her front door.

"Did you eat all the leftover pizza, Ryan?"

"Nope."

"Good I need something. We had a small breakfast and I'm starving."

"Maybe sometime soon we ought to actually go to the store. You know, get you stocked up on actual food. Usually I'm not one to complain about eating like a bachelor cause face it, I am one, but enough is enough", Ryan said with a laugh and a glance in her direction.

"You know, maybe you aren't as bad as Rocky after all", Kim returned with a grin of her own.

"Thanks... I think", Ryan replied with a look of confusion.

Kim opened her door and Ryan held it open for her, then followed her in. Ryan flopped down on the couch and turned on the TV to find something interesting. Suddenly Ryan remembered something and called over his shoulder into the kitchen.

"Hey Kim? Don't eat too much. We gotta go back to the Cyberspace at noon and have lunch with Kat."

"Oh yeah. I almost forgot. Wait a sec, how did YOU remember that?"

Ryan's selective and sometimes nonexistent memory is another thing that reminded her of Tommy.

"I never forget about a meal with a beautiful woman", Ryan said with a sly grin on his face.

Kim snorted and shook her head with a smile and returned her view to the interior of the fridge. _Good lord. How did I ever get to be such good friends with such a chauvinistic pain in the ass?_

* * *

The sun, now high in the sky, continued to bake the California countryside beneath it as Kat parked her car outside the small cafe. She stepped out of her car onto the hot asphalt and shut her car door. She mused to herself as she walked towards the cafe door in shorts and a curve hugging old T-shirt. _Boy they weren't kidding when they said that the marine life around here was going to be fascinating. The couple days that I'll be here are gonna be quite fun, especially with Kim around._

She opened the door to the cafe and was greeted by Hayley.

"Hey there Kat, good to see you again."

"Hello Hayley. Are Kim and Ryan here yet?"

"No not yet. Are they supposed to meet you for lunch?"

"Yeah."

"Well they probably aren't far off then. Have a seat and I'll get you something to drink while you wait for them."

"Pina Colada smoothie please", Kat said with a smile.

"It's virgin, but still a good choice", Hayley replied with a large grin of her own.

Kat had been seated for about five minutes, reading the day's newspaper when Ryan and Kim strolled in from the hot California sun. They waved at Hayley and then sat down with Kat.

"Hey there", Kat said, breaking the ice as they sat down.

"Did you find anything interesting in the local sea life?", Ryan asked with a smile. He was glad lunch had come so fast.

"Well yes and no. I've seen what I saw this morning before, but I sure didn't expect to find it here. The study I'm doing is to find out why."

"Cool. So where did we leave off this morning in conversation?"

Kat cocked her head to the side a bit before answering, "Conversation? Nah that was more like one of our old hallway exchanges we used to have in High School."

Kim nodded, "Yeah, need to know info and then zip off to the next class." Kim and Kat shared a grin at each other.

"Came in handy too, usually about good gossip and guys though", Kat said with an evil grin.

With that said Ryan threw up his hands then folded his arms over his chest and sat back in the chair. _Girls will be girls I suppose._

"Yeah well please refrain from any gossip in my presence please. I've had enough drama for one day."

Kat gave Ryan a questioning look before turning to Kim.

"We ran into Tommy this morning at the high school. Apparently he's teaching earth sciences at Reefside High. I walked into the room and damn near froze in terror. Ryan almost had to carry me to a seat so I wouldn't fall over from the shock of it all. Gosh Kat, I was so stupid! I mean I just wish I hadn't frozen like that and been able to say something you know?"

"Tommy is here too? I thought he would still be in Angel Grove. Wait, you said a teacher in the earth sciences? That would mean he got a teaching degree or something."

Ryan supplied the missing information, "Doctorate actually, in paleontology. The kids call him Dr. O."

Kat couldn't help but smile at how cute that sounded, "Oh wow, I'm not sure if he would be mortified or proud of a nickname like that."

Ryan shrugged, "Not sure, but the way he acted when the kids called him that at least means he has made his peace with it, one way or the other."

"I just can't believe I froze like that. That's never happened to me before."

"Well that's in the past now Kim. I'm kinda surprised he didn't do a little of the same. You should have seen the look on his face when he walked out of the Youth Center after reading your letter, and what made it worse was the fact that he was lifting weights at the time and had Adam start reading it aloud."

Ryan's eyes went wide with shock, "Woah woah woah, hold up a minute. Kim you sent that letter to a public place?"

"Yeah I figured that it would be easiest to get it to him there."

Ryan threw his hands up in defeat, "Well no wonder he ignored you the whole time, kept it to business and barely said a word otherwise. Kim you took his heart, tied it to the back of a car and drove it all the way back to Florida with you. When you arrived it was still yours, but it's now bloody, bruised, broken, and just about every other nasty B word you can think of, including betrayed."

"He's right Kim. Having it out in the open like that, and finding out in that manner was horrible. He looked worse than I ever saw him at that moment. Made worse by the fact that he was in a public place and had no outlet for the pain."

She hadn't thought about that when she had sent the letter. Everyone standing around him watching him go through all those emotions in public. All of the gang staring at him with somber expressions waiting for him to say something. He must have wanted to crawl into a hole and never come out from the sheer embarrassment and humiliation, not to mention the pain and suffering. Kim held her face in her hands and began to cry, "What have I done?", was what was barely heard. It was very quiet, and muffled underneath her quivering and soaked hands.

Ryan got up from his seat, walked around Kat, and placed his hands on Kim's shoulders, "Its not your fault Kim. You were just doing what you thought you had to do. Admittedly you probably should have sent it to his house instead, but that asshole made you write it. It wasn't what you wanted and it damn sure wasn't what was in your heart."

Kat took all this information in with a feeling of relief, _So it was coerced and Ryan isn't the guy she was talking about in the letter._

"How do you think I feel about all this Kim? I helped you write the damn thing to try and let him down easy. Turn around and look at me, hon."

Kim swiveled her chair around slowly and gently lifted her face up to his. Her makeup was smeared all over her face and hands, so much so that it almost made her take on a Gothic look.

Ryan cupped the back of her jaw in both hands and made her look him in the eyes, "You can't change the past. You made him feel like shit. Now you feel like even bigger shit because of it. But put the past where it belongs, in the past. Apologize for it if you must but don't live in it. You still love Tommy don't you?"

She gave a weak nod in his hands.

"Then no more crying. Tell him what happened tonight and set things right. Then if he wants to come back, let him. Give him the option, and if he loves you like you once told me he did, he will forgive you. Remember what I told you back when you woke up from your coma? I love you. You didn't listen to me or any of us that told you Scott was bad news but I forgive you because I love you. If he loves you, he will, too."

Kim leaned forward in her chair and wrapped her arms around Ryan's neck to hug him. He took and smoothed her hair with his left hand while signaling an okay sign to Kat. He held her there for a minute and then gently forced her back against her chair.

"That I think is the first time I've ever seen you cry like that Kim. Now, go hit the little girls room with Kat and get cleaned up. You look worse than you did the night after those two Mai Tai's at the BaiHai Hut."

This evoked a smile from her which made Ryan smile in return. Ryan guided her to Kat who turned her to the ladies room near the back.

Ryan turned and took a drink of his melting smoothie. A napkin was placed in front of him and he looked up to see Hayley standing in front of him behind the bar top.

"You have a wet spot on your shoulder", she said.

"Yeah, at least I'm wearing black, hides the mascara better."

He smiled at her and took another drink of his smoothie.

"So who is this Tommy fellow she was crying about? An old flame?"

"You know who he is, Haley", he replied.

"Excuse me?"

"Ahh ahh, missy, no playing dumb with me. I might be pretty silly sometimes but I'm not stupid, nor am I unobservant", he said right before he took another drink.

"Wow you have a lot of nerve."

"Yes ma'am, and those nerves attach my brain to keen eyes. I watched you sneak over out of the corner of my eye and listen to that whole thing. I couldn't tell that you were piecing the story together cause I couldn't see your face, I just figured you were nosy. Now that things are said and done, I can see the math you did in your head with the information you already had. You know Tommy, and I dare say you know Kim, too. Did you recognize her when she and I came into your place yesterday?"

Hayley paused a moment under his calm, but piercing glare, then let out a sigh of defeat.

"No. I didn't know if it was her or not, but her face was very familiar and you two just got here from Florida. I got two and two from that and gave Tommy a heads up just in case."

"I see, that explains why he seemed to be a bit more prepared and put himself together faster than she did. Do you know the whole story?"

"For the most part, just from Tommy's perspective. I didn't know the feelings from her side were that strong pre or post relationship, but I'm glad to hear that they are. She was his everything. Some people would call it a High School fling but not me. Sometimes he would talk about her when we were in college and his eyes would light up like tossing gasoline into a bonfire. The first time I saw that happen I knew I'd never have a shot with him, so I settled for being the friend. Looks like you did the same."

"Yeah well, someone has to keep these two idiots in line and headed in the right direction."

"So you wanted her to come back to California?"

Ryan laughed, "No I wanted her to stay with me in Florida so I could keep an eye on her, despite the fact that her father is here. Now that I have the information I do though, there's no way I'd let her come back to Florida. What she wants... What she needs, is here."

"Well I don't know any of that for sure, but we will all be told the whole story finally tonight I'm guessing."

"Tonight?"

"Yes. I'll be there with you, her, Tommy, and the foursome you saw in here earlier, at Tommy's tonight."

"So you know about the stone I have?"

"Yes, Tommy called me and told me earlier."

"So what is it and why did it shock me?"

"That's something Tommy wants to be able to tell you. I know it sucks to be not told everything but trust me when I tell you there's a good reason.

Ryan nodded and took another drink of his smoothie.

"Well if you don't mind Haley, I'm going to see where the little women went off to. They are making me miss my lunch."

Haley smiled and shook her head as Ryan turned and walked towards the women's bathroom to ferret out his lunch dates.

* * *

Kim slowly walked into the bathroom and propped herself up on the counter with her hands. She stared at her own reflection in the mirror and grew angrier and angrier as the moments passed.

"You okay Kim?"

"Yeah, just peachy. How could I have been such a complete fucking moron Kat?"

"We were all a bit young and stupid back then remember Kim? Remember what I did to you just because I had a crush on Tommy? I stole your power coin and damn near watched you die falling off that balance beam!"

"Kat you know damn well that wasn't your fault or just because of a stupid crush. You were under Rita's spell. You didn't have a choice."

"Yes but remember what Billy said. The spell was made stronger because it stemmed part of its power from the darkness within. Some part of me wanted you out of the way so I could have him. You forgave me. Now its time to forgive yourself and try to move on like Ryan said."

"Yeah I know. It's just gonna be so damned hard."

"Nothing worth it is ever easy."

She chuckled slightly, "That's what Ryan always says."

Kim turned back to the mirror and looked at herself. Gone were the lines that anger had etched across her face. Kat's sympathy had made her feel a bit better, even if she hadn't really wanted it. She had gotten herself into this awful mess and by god she was gonna get herself out too. He was right, no more moping for her. She was going to press forward and work the problem from the road ahead. She turned on the sink and began to wash the ruined makeup off of her face. It was cleansing in a way she had never thought possible. It was like her pent up worries and frustrations were washing away with it. It was time for a new day. Time for a new Kimberly Hart.

"So if you don't mind me asking. What exactly happened in Florida?"

She sighed and looked at Kat, "Well I suppose I could tell you so that its not so hard to tell Tommy later. You mind if I tell you while I wash all this crap off my face and reapply some new makeup?"

"No problem Kim. Take your time."

"Well as you know I took a chance to compete in the Pan Global games. I went to Florida to train under Coach Schmidt. He was the one who came to Angel Grove and offered the spot to me. I got to Sarasota, Florida and was amazed by the facilities this guy had. I was as happy as a pig in slop and couldn't wait to get started."

Kat smiled at her friends enthusiasm.

"I was living in the dorms and there really wasn't much to do so occasionally me and a few others would go out to a karaoke bar or some other fun place to have a few drinks and relax. A little while after I got there I met a guy from another of the teams that were training on the complex. His name was Scott and I'm sorry but I get chills when I have to say his name so that's the only time I'll say it."

"That's okay Kim. Go ahead."

"Anyway, he was nice, and sweet, and a caring person. I decided to move in with him eventually. I moved into his place out of the dormitories. All was going just fine until one night we got into a fight because I was still calling to talk to Tommy every so often. He hated it and said I had no reason to talk to him anymore. Tommy was my past and he was my future. Needless to say I got upset and drove off into the night. I didn't care where I ended up I just wanted to be out of there. I wound up in a parking lot crying. Not as bad as just now but enough, and angry as hell too. I went for a walk in the shopping plaza I was stopped in front of because nothing made me happy like shopping. I came past a lively little sports bar I had never been to before, so I decided to head in to drown my sorrows in some hard liquor."

"You probably didn't get very far. Tolerance and body weight have a lot to do with how much you can consume. You don't weigh a hell of a lot and I'll wager a bet you weren't very strong on the tolerance side either."

"Oh you hit the nail on the head. Three shots of Jagermeister and two lemon drops later and I was soaring without any wings if you catch my drift. So I'm just sitting there and Ryan, whom I don't know at this point in the story, comes up and says hi to me. He knows the owner of the bar, Rick, who sent him over to see if I was okay. Ryan was a regular there and was playing darts with Rick. Anyway though, he introduces himself and wants to know if I'm okay. Apparently I slurred out "Yeash,itzokImfine". At that point Freddy, the bartender that night, cut me off saying I had had enough."

Kat laughed out loud as Kim re-enacted her slurred speech, hand gestures and all.

"So Rick and Ryan spend about fifteen minutes convincing me to let Ryan drive me home, because I'm obviously in no shape to drive and they want to keep me out of trouble. All the while too apparently I was getting very friendly with Ryan in that non-innocent type of way. That's really all I remember until I wake up the next morning. I was seriously hammered. Before that though, sometime around one in the morning I tried to leave and Ryan followed me into the parking lot. He says I was stumbling and weaving my way to my car. He pinned me against my car, and snatched my keys out of my hand from behind. He had dangled the keys from his fingers for added theatrics and scolded me. Proclaiming to me that it was for my own good. He led me to his car and opened the door for me and helped get me in. Halfway back to HIS place however I started panicking and saying I was afraid to go home. So Ryan took me back to his place. Apparently soon after I got there I used his bathroom for porcelain worship. He cleaned me up and then offered to sleep on his couch in the living room. I, still being a bit loopy, insisted that it would be fine to share. The next morning I find myself in Ryan's arms and both of us half naked. He had made a snide comment about not remembering going to sleep under the covers, or snuggled up to such a gorgeous half naked woman, but happy with the way things turned out. I don't think I can ever remember being so panicked. After I calmed down and he explained what happened things went a bit more smoothly."

"Woke up in his arms, huh?" _Lucky girl._

"Yeah, scared the hell out of me."

"Lucky you that you found the one bar full of people that WOULDN'T take advantage of that."

"Yeah but my luck was quickly running out. HE was super pissed that I never came home. He was even more pissed that I had spent the night with another guy. Soon after that he had me write Tommy that awful letter and Ryan helped me on it. It was all in protest but he understood why. I started hanging out with Ryan and his friends at Trivia Night at the bar I had stumbled into, Hammerhead Reds. HE came out a few times I'm guessing to see what I was up to, but you could tell he wasn't overly thrilled to be there. That went on for quite a while, we had our ups and downs as all couples do. But the worst part was the verbal abuse I took from him and I don't know why I did. A bit later I was starting to have enough of all of HIS bullshit and so I tried to move back into the dorms. Unfortunately though, they had been filled up by new people and no rooms were empty anymore. I was still determined to end it and get away from him though so I made up a plan to get out and get my own apartment. Ryan and his brother wanted to help me move out just in case but I told them I could handle it by myself. I thought, 'I was a Power Ranger, surely I can handle this ass wipe if he gets out of hand.' I was wrong."

Kat's inquisitive face gaped in horror as Kim continued applying her make up in a slow methodical manner. Her eyes were dead and cold as she stared into the mirror.

"The night I was trying to move out all of my stuff came and he was out late like I expected. Problem is though he came back earlier than I expected him to. He walked in that door, saw what I was doing and just went ballistic. Ryan and Kyle and Cory had all warned me that it was coming, but I just didn't think it was possible. He was drunk and just started going crazy mad. He was swinging a baseball bat and tearing up the place because I was leaving him. When he was done tearing up the apartment he turned towards me. In a panic, I hit my send button on my phone twice to try to warn someone and call for help. Ryan was the person I had talked to last. I got out a cry for help but HE grabbed the phone out of my hands and smashed it. He beat me literally within an inch of my life. Ryan told me that the place was a wreck when he walked in and found me on the floor. He dialed 911 and then saw HIM come out of another room. HE lunged at Ryan, but seeing as how HE was beyond drunk and Ryan was sober at the moment, Ryan picked him apart like something out of the UFC. Ryan broke his nose, and later told me it gave him pleasure to do it. I can't say I felt bad about it myself either. I was in a coma for almost five years after that, he had fractured nearly every bone in my skull and lots more in my arms and ribs. How I didn't have any brain damage, I'll never know. The arms were mostly my fault when I was trying to shield my head from the bat."

By this time, Kat's eyes were streaming silent tears down her cheeks. Her mouth was permanently fixed in a state of horror. Kim's eyes lost the dead look as she snapped herself out of her trip down memory lane and turned to Kat.

"I'm okay Kat. Ryan helped me face it all. Well all except the Tommy part."

Kat was still speechless when she wordlessly walked to Kim and helds onto her for dear life. Tears and sobs began to flow from her eyes like Niagara Falls as the wave of emotion hit her. Kim held onto her friend and soothed her as Ryan had done to her earlier. Kim and Kat stood there holding each other for a few moments, locked in an embrace of friendship long forgotten, and now rekindled by a spark of sorrow.

"Knock Knock! You ladies still in here?"

Kim smiled and answered the call of Ryan whom she knew was peeking through the doorway but not around the corner to see them.

"Yeah Ryan we are in here still."

"I'm hungry Kim."

"I know Ryan, we will be out in a minute. We have two makeup jobs to redo now."

"Kimberly Ann Hart, what did I tell you about water fights in the bathroom. Now clean up that mess and get your butt out here to eat your lunch. And pronto."

Kim rolled her eyes and replied, "Yes dear."

They heard the door shut and Kat looked at Kim with a scowl, "I can't believe he just said that. I am so gonna kick his ass."

Kim laughed at her reaction, "It's okay. He knows we didn't have a water fight. He knows exactly what happened. He just said that so we wouldn't wallow in it. It's just his goofy ass way of helping, and in all honestly it works better than you might think. Especially after you know the guy a while."

"Yeah I guess so."

"Okay Kat, your turn now for a makeup redo."

Kat laughed and turned to the sink to wash her face. She could get used to being here a while. Its not home, but its starting to feel like a close second.

* * *

Kat and Kim walked out of the bathroom and towards the bar top, feeling much better and not so weighed down with emotion. Ryan turned to greet them when he heard them approach.

"Welcome back ladies. Can I offer you a menu?"

Ryan handed them both a menu and was rewarded by nods of thanks.

"You know what you are eating already, Ryan?"

"Yes I do, I took the liberty of rifling through the menu while you were redoing Kat's lovely face and I think I'm gonna stick to a good old fashioned cheeseburger today."

"Wow actually that doesn't sound bad, what about you Kat?"

"Hey count me in. I've been missing burgers. My last posting was in the south Pacific. Nothing but rice and noodles there, and a few things I'm not even sure what it was. I just ate it because I had to eat."

Ryan waved his hands in the air, "Okay, okay, okay, enough details please. I'd like to keep my appetite."

Hayley spotted Ryan's waving hands and picked then to wander back over.

"Have you all decided?"

"Yes Hayley. All three of us have decided on the cheeseburger."

"Fries or chips as a side?"

"Fries for me. Ladies?"

"Same."

"Me too."

Ryan sat there slightly amazed and more than slightly amused, "Wow you girls definitely aren't on diets. How odd for California girls."

"Don't judge us by our silly peers", Kat answered for them both.

* * *

Mesogog sat in his chambers fuming over the latest failure of his lackey Elsa. Every time he had a chance to make a goal, to gain a victory over the Power Rangers, he was dealt a defeat instead of the victory he needed to set his plan into motion. To make matters worse, the accursed human whom played host to him, Anton Mercer, was getting stronger and stronger willed. It was taking more and more of a struggle to push him back and assert his dominance over this annoying pest's body.

"ZELTRAX!"

Zeltrax heard the bellow of his master from the next chamber over. He dropped what he was occupied with and walked to the door. The door opened and he walked to the throne with dignity and knelt at the foot of Mesogog's throne.

"Yes my lord? I am here to serve you."

'Zeltrax, Elsa has failed me. She failed to retrieve what appears to be a dino gem. It is being held by a human who looks like this."

Mesogog presseed a button on his throne and a picture of Ryan appeared on the view screen to Zeltrax's right. Zeltrax looked up and glanced at the screen.

"You are to assault this human and retrieve it for me. We WILL return this land to the world of the dinosaurs, to whom this planet rightfully belongs! He is currently inside Hayley's Cyberspace, use an ambush of your choosing when he exits, and DO NOT fail me Zeltrax!"

Zeltrax saluted Mesogog while still kneeling.

"It shall be done my lord. The gem is as good as yours."

Zeltrax stood and walked out the door behind him.

"It had better be, Zeltrax. It had better be."

* * *

Ryan finished his burger first and then excused himself to use the bathroom, leaving the two friends at the bar top all alone.

"So what do you think of Ryan?", Kim asked Kat

"He's okay. Probably has the girls pining after him back home eh?"

"Actually no. He is single and has been for a while."

"Wow, why is that?"

"Dunno. Probably just no one gets to know him first, they just write him off."

Kim sat there and chewed her last bite of cheeseburger while thinking.

"You like him don't you?"

"Well, I think I'm leaning in that direction yeah."

"If it gives you any confidence, he dropped his jaw on the floor when you walked in this morning."

"Really?"

"Oh yeah, you could totally play with him a bit. Don't break him cause I'll kick your ass Kat. Don't string him along if you don't intend to do anything with him. But if you do like him, play with him all you like, that would make me laugh so hard. He's not usually in those situations. He will so freak out."

Just then, Ryan exited the bathroom and began to walk back over to the bar top.

"Okay Kim. Let the fun commence."

"Well what have you chatty cathy's been talking about while I was gone?"

Kim shot Kat a smile, "Just talking about the good ol' days"

"Oh I see. So are we all done and ready to go?"

"I'm done", Kat replied. "But Kim has a few fries left. Sit down for a minute while I get my money out."

"Oh please Kat. Like I'm going to let Hayley take your money for your lunch.", Ryan said while swatting at her hand which was reaching inside her purse.

"Well thank you Ryan, that's sweet."

"Think nothing of it."

Kim swallowed a mouthful of fries and wiped her mouth off with a napkin, "Say Kat, you doing anything tonight?"

"Not that I'm aware of why?"

Ryan looked at Kim wide eyed and began mouthing no, pointing to his pocket and frantically spelling T-O-M-M-Y in the air behind Kat's back.

"Well Ryan and I are going to go have a chat with Tommy at his house. I figured another old friend might be a welcome surprise."

"I don't know Kim. Being that you and Tommy are going to talk about personal things..."

Kim cut Kat off, "That you already know about. Don't worry about it."

Ryan trying to play cool and failing replied, "Yeah but we got that OTHER thing to talk about too ya know!"

Kim looked away in mock remembrance, "Oh THAT! Yeah that's okay, nothing she would be surprised about."

Ryan sat gape mouthed in a silently shocked protest to Kim.

"Trust me Ryan."

"You know Kim, you're throwing that word around very loosely in my presence lately. I'm not sure what to do with that."

"It'll be okay Ryan. You'll see."

"Yeah okay", he said sarcastically.

Kat turned to face Ryan, "By the way Ryan, I heard what you did for Kimberly. Staying with her while she was in a coma, saving her from that royal dirt bag."

"Well she's my friend why wouldn't I do it."

Hayley came by just then with the signing slip for Ryan's credit card. He signed it and returned it to Hayley, "And now there's another guest tonight at the Oliver residence."

"Who? Kat?" Hayley said quizzically.

"Yeah."

"It's okay Hayley", Kim said. "She's one of the old gang."

"Yeah, I know all about who she is. Come on over tonight, Kat. I'm sure he'd be delighted to see you."

Ryan's mouth gaped open once again and looked from one woman to the other trying to decide which was the craziest, "DID I MISS A MEMO!"

Kat turned to Ryan with a laugh, "Yes, you did. By the way, this is a thank you for helping my friend so much when she needed it."

Ryan gulped in embarrassment as Kat sexily sauntered up to him, leaned down, and planted a deep french kiss on him. Ryan was so stunned it took a moment for him to move his lips and enjoy it. Kat reluctantly pulled away from him to see him still sitting there with his eyes partly closed in a stunned stupor.

"Okay well time to go then I guess. I'll see you tonight Hayley, Kim. Bye Ryan!", She said while walking through the door and blowing him a kiss.

Kim waved at Kat as she walked through the door, then walked back over to Ryan.

"You alive?"

Ryan didn't move anything but his lips as he spoke, "Kim... she... kissed me."

"Yeah, Ryan apparently she did. Now snap the hell out of it and lets go."

"I can't."

"What if she's waiting for you in the parking lot?", Kim said as she walked towards the front door.

Ryan bounded off his chair and was through the door in a flash, "Coming!"

Ryan and Kim walked to her car side by side and saw that she was indeed still in the parking lot getting ready to pull out in her yellow Jeep.

Ryan waved to her and was about to get into the passenger side of Kim's car, when suddenly a rift opened on the hill about 500 feet away. Ryan's attention was diverted as soon as he heard the portal open. As he stared at it, out poured Zeltrax and a hoard of Tyrannodrones.

"Hey Kim? What the hell are those?"

Kim looked over the top of her car behind Ryan and immediately turned and yelled for Kat.

"KAT! WE GOT COMPANY!"

Kat quickly put her jeep back into park, turned off the ignition and jumped out to assist her.

Meanwhile, Zeltrax had spotted Ryan and he cackled with evil glee.

"There is our target! GET HIM! ATTACK!"

Ryan looked in amazement as the Tyrannodrones started scrambling for him.

"Get HIM! Oh shit, I'm the only guy here!"

Ryan scrambled around to the other side of the car where Kim and Kat were, "I'll say it again Kim, WHAT THE FUCK ARE THESE THINGS?"

"I have no idea Ryan, but its time to put those Air Force hand to hand combat training programs to use!"

"Dammit, I was better with a gun", Ryan said as he assumed a defensive stance alongside the girls. "They are after me by the way. They said "get HIM!""

"Okay Ryan, just stay in between us and defend yourself okay?"

"You got it. You know martial arts and I don't remember? I'm staying wherever the hell you tell me to!"

* * *

Hayley watched her patrons exit and then turned to set their dishes inside the dishwasher. _They seem like nice people. They'll make a nice temporary supplement to the team._

Hayley straightened herself back up as she closed the dishwasher and looked out the window to see Zeltrax and a very large group of Tyrannodrones had portaled in on the hill above the parking lot.

"Oh crap!"

She fumbled for the phone and called Tommy's cell phone number.

"Oh shit. Please pick up, please pick up."

_"Hello?"_

"Tommy?"

"_Hayley?"_

"Tommy please step outside your classroom for a moment to talk."

"_Alright. Hey class, please excuse me a moment, keep reading about the Paleolithic Era for a moment."_

Tommy walked out the door and closed it behind him_._

"_Go ahead Hayley."_

"Tommy get the Rangers here ASAP! Ryan, Kim, and Kat just got jumped by Zeltrax and a huge army of Tyrannodrones in my parking lot!"

"_Kat? What the hell? Never mind it can wait. I'll get them on their way right now."_

"Hurry Tommy! I don't know how long they will last! Two ex-rangers and a civilian isn't exactly the best fighting force in the world."

"_I understand that Hayley. Just hold on they are on their way."_

"Thanks, Tommy."

She hung up the phone and began to say a small prayer for her new friends, who outside, began a fight for their lives.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Yeah I like the power rangers. Guilty as charged. thats the ONLY charge I'm guilty of. None of this belongs to me, thus I am making no money off anything in this story. Sue me if you want. 50% of 0 is still 0 lol.

* * *

Outside the Cyberspace, in the parking lot, the battle raged on, and it didn't look good. Ryan bled from a gash in his left forearm. Kat had a huge bruise on her right thigh and her right wrist felt like it was broken. Kim was in no better shape as she was bleeding down the left side of her face from a gash somewhere on the left side of her scalp, bruises on both forearms, and a slight limp in her left leg.

"Ryan stay between us, we got this."

"Kim, no offense sweetheart but you're looking as beaten up as a hooker in Harlem. I think its time for a strategy change."

"What did you have in mind, oh great one?"

"You aren't going to like it."

Kim grunted as she dodged another drone, swept its feet, and planted an axe kick in its chest, "Well at the moment I'm really not in the mood to argue."

"I was hoping you'd say that. It's me they are after. You two keep your asses put. I have an idea."

As soon as Ryan had finished his sentence, he took off up the hill past Zeltrax in a dead run.

"What? RYAN NO!"

Ryan turned enough to Zeltrax to taunt him and then kept running as fast as his legs could carry him.

"Come on you fucking Tron reject! Follow me!"

"Tyrannodrones follow that human! GET HIM!", Zeltrax bellowed in command.

_Thats right grid boy. Get them to follow me. That's it. Now lets see how smart they are._

Ryan began to run in wide circles at the top of the hill with the Tyrannodrones following his every move. Eventually, due to their collective stupidity, he had them all gathered in a large group. Zeltrax raced up to the group of drones closer to assist them in Ryan's capture. As Zeltrax approached the group he moved to attack Ryan as he ran past his position. Ryan anticipated Zeltrax's move and instead dove into the middle of the drones with a satisfying grin.

Down the hill, Kat and Kim could only watch in horror as he disappeared beneath the massive pile of drones whom all dove into the middle of the group to pin him and capture him. Behind the girls, three bikes and an ATV arrived to join the fight. Conner, Kira, Ethan, and Trent dismounted off of their vehicles and joined the girls in watching the fray on the hill above them. They too could only watch in disbelief as Ryan's capture took place in front of them, too far away for them to get there in time.

"Oh my god, Kim they are gonna kill him!", Kat gasped.

"I know Kat. I'm so sorry Ryan."

Kim slowly shrank to her knees overcome with a feeling of helplessness as she was unable to tear her gaze from the pile of Tyrannodrones. The group looked at each other as they realized that the drones should have been gone long ago due to seizing the prize they had came for.

"Look!", Conner exclaimed and pointed at the pile of drones.

A sudden burst of movement from the pile drew the attention of the Red Ranger and everyone joined him in staring at the pile intently as it bulged more and more. Finally, the pile exploded with energy, sending Tyrannodrone bodies flying in all directions as if they were shot out of a cannon. Zeltrax had reached the pile just as it exploded and was flung into a large tree trunk only to be crushed by two flying Tyrannodrones split seconds after impact. The three beings collapsed lifelessly at the bottom of the split tree trunk, still entangled in one another. Two more shot through the windows of the Cyberspace and a third directly into the side of the building where its body left an imprint on the side of the building in cracked and crumbling stucco. The rest of the army of drones were either thrown straight up into the air or over the other side of the hill and were far out of sight before they landed again.

Amid the dusty dirt crater there was only one thing still moving, Ryan.

Kim recognized the stumbling form through the haze of dust and took off running for him. All her previous pains and battle scars were now forgotten as she raced up the hill to check her best friend. Kat saw Kim sprint toward the crater and took off right behind her, only to be followed closely by the awestruck foursome of Rangers. Kim arrived inside the dusty crater just in time to catch Ryan as his dizzy attempts to regain his footing finally failed. She shuffled her sitting form in behind his head to cradle it off the ground.

"Oh man. Kim stop the world I wanna get off."

Kim scolded him as tears started to form at the corners of her eyes, "You stupid son of a bitch why did you do that?"

"Was the only way to save you two", he said weakly before he hacked forth a loud cough. "Better I do that and save you two, than all three of us get killed."

Kat arrived in time to hear the words he said, however she was more concerned with his condition.

"Kim relax a moment and let me check him over. The company I work for makes us take advanced first aid training due to the dangerous environments the field researchers are sometimes put into."

Kim nodded at Kat and made room around Ryan's head for Kat to enter his dazed field of vision in order to talk to him. She pulled her keys from her pocket and fumbled with a flashlight keychain before kneeling next to him. Kat then swiftly shielded his face from the sun and flashed the flashlight in his eyes to check his pupil response. Ryan had a dazed and confused look on his face as his world kept spinning around him. When he felt his eyelid being pried open it forced him to focus a moment on the person who was now above him.

"Oh... Hi, Kat... You kiss good... can I have another sometime?"

Kat continued to check on him but couldn't help but blush as she answered his question, "I'd like that Ryan."

"Oh good... me too... but for now... I... think I'm... gonna take... a nap..."

Ryan's head fell to the left as he lost consciousness. Kim panicked and started to shake him.

"RYAN! RYAN! WAKE UP DAMMIT!"

"Kim, it's okay", Kat said calmly. "He'll be okay. His pulse is still strong, he isn't showing any signs of head trauma, and his breathing is a bit shallow, but nothing life threatening. It looks like he's just really really tired."

Kim breathed a sigh of relief, "Oh god, that's good news."

Conner and the rest of the Rangers arrived at the dusty crater just after Ryan lost consciousness. The dirt still hung in the air as if it was smoke and it slowly drifted from the crater.

Conner leaned over the two girls and spoke up, "He's not dead is he?"

Kim looked up at him with a halfway smile, "No Conner, apparently he's just napping."

Conner took a step back from them and looked at his three colorful companions. _How does she know who I am? _Ethan, Kira and Trent just shrugged at him.

"Oh and if you're wondering how I know how you, Kira, Ethan, and Trent are all rangers, it takes an ex-ranger to put the clues together this easily. Kat is an ex-ranger too so everything is cool."

Kat looked up and smiled and then went back to checking Ryan's pulse and breathing, making sure it stayed strong and steady. Kim stayed firmly latched to Ryan's hand but continued talking to the befuddled teens.

Ethan gestured to Ryan and spoke, "And him?"

"Not an ex-ranger", Kim said. "But your beloved Dr.O is an ex-ranger as well. Now that I'm putting clues together in my head, hes your mentor isn't he?"

"Yes", Conner replied. "But speaking of that, we should get to his house. That's where our headquarters is and nowhere will be safer than there for Ryan. We need to keep him away from Mesogog's goons."

"Agreed", said Trent. "Lets load him into the back seat of Kim's car and the two of you can follow us back. We will just drive by it so as not to be followed by any civilian traffic, but we will point you to it as we go by."

Kira laid a hand on Kat's shoulder to get her attention, "Is he okay to be moved?"

"He should be just fine. He's just exhausted but what worries me is I don't know why."

Conner walked over to Ryan's head and lifted him by grabbing under his armpits, "Ethan, get his feet man."

Ethan nodded at Conner and lifted Ryan by his feet. The group moved as a whole all the way down the hill to Kim's car and loaded him into the back seat.

Just as Conner and Ethan got Ryan laid down in the back of Kim's Jetta, Hayley came out to see what had happened.

"Kim is he okay?"

Kim turned to her and gave her a reassuring smile, "Yeah Hayley he's fine. We are taking him to Tommy's place. You might want to come too."

"The police are on their way right now to investigate so It'll probably be a while but I'll be there as soon as I can. Two drones got flung through the front windows. They disappeared shortly after that, as did Zeltrax and the others."

"Okay Hayley", Conner said. "Stay here and do what you have to do but call us if any more bad guys show up again."

"Will do, Conner."

Conner turned back to the assembled group and went into leader mode, "Okay, Kim and Kat, follow Trent to Dr.O's house, we will provide escort cover and keep any civilian vehicles from getting too curious."

Kim and Kat nodded at Conner and got into their vehicles. Trent lead the way and signaled Kim and Kat to follow him. Kat's Jeep and Kim's Jetta left the parking lot behind Trent's ATV. Conner, Kira, and Ethan pulled out of the parking lot behind them onto the public street on their Raptor Cycles, all bound for Tommy Oliver's house.

* * *

Mesogog paced his throne room in a supremely foul mood. Zeltrax had failed him. The Rangers and the newly discovered dino gem had slipped from his grasp once again. He should be planning to punish Zeltrax severely, but instead he was awaiting word on his henchman's condition from Elsa. Zeltrax was teleported back to his evil lair barely alive. _Perhaps punishing him isn't the best course of action in this case. That human took care of not only him but a large legion of Tyrannodrones. This new gem is quite powerful indeed. I shall need a supremely powerful monster to take care of this._

No sooner had he finished his thought, then Elsa walked into the throne room.

"Elsssa, report."

"He arrived here barely alive, my lord. He will recover but it shall take some time. None of the drones recovered were salvageable at all. They appeared to be crushed down to a cellular level."

"Well then. Perhapss its time we introduced a new player to the game. Devise a monster to combat our new foe, and make it the most powerful monster ever made."

"Shall I use the Umbracite Crystal my lord? You have been saving it for just such an occasion."

"What a splendid idea Elsa. Use the crystal, and with it we shall create a monster the likes of which this world has never seen."

"Yes, my lord."

Elsa snapped Mesogog a salute with an evil grin and re-entered her laboratory, intent on devising the downfall of the Rangers.

* * *

Trent drove by a grey mailbox which was planted beside a long dirt driveway. He motioned with his hand and looked back at Kat in her jeep. She nodded at him and slowed to turn into the driveway. Kat slid to a stop on the driveway and looked over to see Kim pull in right beside her in front of Tommy's house. Kat raced over to the back door of Kim's car and opened the door.

"We have to bring him in?"

"Yeah Kat, the kids are probably going to be a few minutes."

"Alright Kim, I'll get his feet."

Kat leaned into the car before moving him to check his breathing and pulse. Thankfully, both were still normal and getting stronger. She pulled on his feet and slid him halfway out the door while Kim lifted his shoulders and pushed from inside the other back door of the car. As she tried to pull him out the door, his shirt caught on the warm leather seats and rolled up underneath him revealing his flat, but nowhere near a six-pack stomach. She looked down at it and then looked up at Kim across the car from her.

Kim snickered, "Yeah I know what you mean, we are used to guys that work out constantly, teach martial arts and have six-pack abs. Ryan loves his beer."

"It's an english dry cider, not beer", came the weak reply from the seat.

Kim and Kat looked down to see Ryan barely awake. He moved a hand to his forehead and winced in pain.

"Kim? Did you get the number of that bus?"

"Worse. It had a name. It was Zeltrax. Think you can walk? You aren't exactly light as a feather you know."

"I don't know, maybe if you two help me along. The car keeps spinning."

Kim walked over to the other side of the car where Kat was. Kat and Kim each grabbed an arm and pulled him to his feet. He immediately started to sway but the girls caught him and each draped an arm over their shoulders.

"Just shuffle your feet and use us as crutches. We can handle a little of your weight", Kat said.

"Okay. You know, I always wanted to have two good looking women all over me, but this isn't exactly what I had in mind."

"Shut up Ryan. Talking takes energy", Kim replied with a smile.

They eventually shuffled their way to the porch. Kim opened the front door and the three of them did a halfway awkward dance to try and drag Ryan inside the house. They were about to lay him on the couch when they heard a door open. Kat and Kim both turned their heads to find Conner back in his street clothes and coming up from a secret doorway with Ethan closely behind him.

"Oh good you three made it inside. Lets bring him down here, there's a bit more room and its more secure. Ethan can you give me a hand again?"

"Yeah sure", came the reply from behind Conner.

"Aw man, I was just starting to enjoy being doted on by beautiful women", Ryan said with a weak smile in Kim's direction.

"Ryan, I might be concerned for you right now, but that doesn't mean you won't pay for that comment later."

"Yes, dear."

The two boys took over for the girls and gently guided Ryan downstairs. Trent and Kira had arrived with Conner and Ethan but stayed in the lair to check to see what else Mesogog was up to. Once they were all downstairs in the hidden lair, Ethan and Conner helped Ryan to the couch and laid him down. Kat and Kim walked over to the couch to check on Ryan and as they did, Kira finally noticed the fairly mangled condition of the other two girls and spoke up.

"All three of you have cuts and scrapes all over you, not to mention a lot of bruises. I'm going to go upstairs and see if there's anything we can use to bandage you up."

Conner turned to face her, "Great thinking, Trent go with her and give her a hand please?"

Trent nodded at Conner and followed Kira back up the stairs. Ethan moved to sit on one arm of the couch intent on satisfying his curiosity while Ryan was still awake.

"How did you do that Ryan? There must have been thirty Tyrannodrones, how did you throw them like that?"

Ryan gave him a weak smile and some even weaker slurred speech.

"Well I just remembered something from a video game I played online. That little move was called a Nova. I just didn't know how well it would work when I did it. I didn't know I'd get as much of it as everything around me did."

"I have an answer as to why that is if you'd like it."

Everyone turned their heads toward the stairs to see Tommy descending the stairs, followed by Trent and Kira who were carrying various bandaging items.

"Oh, I see where this is going, Dr.O", said Ethan.

Kira and Trent set down the items near the couch and Kira began to work on bandaging some of the wounds Kim, Kat and Ryan had earned in their fight. Trent turned to Kat and helped her strap on a wrist brace to her right forearm.

Tommy continued his explanation, " After Hayley got done calling the cops, she called me to tell me what had just happened. You three are lucky, Tyrannodrones can be a bit nasty in big numbers. As for why he is so tired, we learned early on that if you use your gem's powers without a morpher to manage the energy usage, using your gem's power will actually drain your life force. Thats why Ryan is so tired. Your body thinks you just ran a marathon or two."

"That makes sense. I can't even run _one _marathon, let alone two. Whats this morpher thing you are talking about? Dammit, I'm out of the loop again but I just can't manage to keep my eyes open over here. I'm sorry", Ryan said with a large yawn escaping at the end of his sentence.

"That's okay, Ryan. These four need to get back to school anyway. I took the rest of the day off so we have someone here to protect you, Kim and Kat. I doubt that they would try anything here but, better safe than sorry."

"Oh good. Then after they leave you and Kim can have a nice sit down with one another."

Kim looked down at Ryan, "I don't think right now is the best time."

Ryan looked up at Kim and scowled, "Now is a perfect time, when I wake up we can discuss all this other stuff, but I need a nap cause the world is still doing somersaults."

"You are going to be okay?"

"I'll be fine, I even have a 'Kat' to cuddle with."

Kim couldn't help but give him a lopsided smile, "Yeah, he's okay. You know, I'd slap you for that but you're already hurt."

Kat smiled at Kim and motioned toward the stairs, "Go ahead Kim. I'll take care of the resident hornball."

"Alright, let us know when he wakes up."

Kim gave Ryan a kiss on the forehead, then stood up and turned around to face Tommy. Content that things would go the way he was hoping, Ryan laid his head over and within moments was fast asleep.

Conner noticed the growing scowl on Tommy's face and looked around at Kira, Ethan, and Trent, "Ummm, yeah. You heard the man, back to school for us. We'll be back when school is out."

The four teenagers didn't even bother to use the stairs, as they all felt the urge to leave with a sense of speed, and instead made their exit through the back door and up the ramp. The door slid shut and Tommy turned his gaze to Kimberly. She looked at him nervously as she tried to read the look on his face and figure out how to explain away the mistake she had made.

Tommy looked at her with his deep scowl still present on his face and was the first to speak, "I don't think we need to talk Kim. You said quite enough with your letter."

Kim winced as if he had slapped her as Tommy turned away from her and towards the stairs, "Yes I know. I can't take the letter back even though I wish I could, but at least give me a chance to explain. If after that you can forgive me and we can move on at the very least as friends then thats what I would like, but if not then I understand."

Tommy pondered her words for a moment. _Is she being sincere? Do I really want to give her a chance to explain herself? What if there was a good reason for the letter? NO WAY! There could never be a good reason to stab someone in the back like that. Where will the next dagger come from?_

Tommy turned back around and looked positively angry this time, "Is Ryan the guy? The guy you left me for?"

"No Tommy, he is the person that saved me from my mistakes. Now he is trying to save me from another one. Lets go upstairs and talk so that Ryan can get some rest down here though. If nothing else I need this for me. Please, Tommy", she said as she bit her lip out of nervous habit.

Tommy noticed her lip habit. She only did that when she was really nervous or trying to hold herself together. He was sure that she was a bit of both right at the moment. But what gave him pause was her body language. _She's shaking with fear, she's biting her lip, and shes looking me straight in the eyes. I never could resist those eyes. They pierce my soul._

Tommy let out a sigh and put on a face of frustration, "Alright Kim. I have a feeling I'm going to need to sit down for this anyway."

Kat watched the two of them walk upstairs and then looked down at Ryan's sleeping form, "I hope you know what you're doing."

* * *

Tommy and Kimberly walked upstairs to his living room. He motioned towards one side of the couch. Kim nodded at him silently and watched as Tommy didn't sit down but walked into the kitchen and opened his fridge. She smiled as she saw him grab a couple of bottles of water from the inside of the door and then hand her one before taking a seat on the far side of the same couch.

"I figured you could use some after your fight with our local putty patrollers."

Kim thanked him silently and took an overzealous drink of it, nearly coughing and grinned sheepishly at him, "Sorry. I was thirsty."

"That's alright, Kim. Now then, what did you need to tell me?"

Kim's smile disappeared as she steeled herself for the conversation ahead.

"First of all, have patience with me as I go through this. Some it is very hard for me for me to discuss with anyone let alone you. Also, the only reason I'm doing this is because I promised Ryan."

Tommy looked confused, "What is he to you anyway? What is he to you that you would make a promise like that?"

"He's not the guy I left you for, I told you that much already. He... he is the reason I am sitting in front of you at all. He is the reason I'm still alive. He is my brother and hero all rolled into one. The one person besides you that will live in my heart forever."

Tommy reeled from her revelation like a punch to the gut. _He's not the one? He saved her life? Something horrible must have happened and he saved her life, and not in the figurative sense either. She feels attached to him like a brother, or a father. A protector. No wonder they bicker and banter so much._

Tommy smiled, "Certain things are beginning to make sense. Why don't you tell me the whole story."

Kimberly visibly relaxed, most of the stress she was feeling about the conversation faded in just one smile from Tommy. She dove into her story beginning with her departure from Angel Grove. She kept her story light and happy at first and told him about the gym and the training she got for the first couple months there. She then told him about meeting Scott and how she felt about him. It started off as a wonderful story. She told Tommy that she had held off telling him about Scott right away in the letters she wrote because she didn't know if Scott would last and didn't want to hurt Tommy. It was a shitty and dishonest way to do it but she had long ago added that to the list of mistakes she had made. She had moved in with Scott to save some extra money, as there wasn't a whole lot of time to make extra money with their training schedules and the allotment given to them covered rent and food but little else. Her face had visibly changed as she started telling him how things got worse and worse. Kim didn't go into extreme detail, but Tommy wasn't so naive anymore, he had learned to read between the lines. She noticed how his hands clenched as she told him certain things. Like he was ready to kill.

There was another brief period of levity in the conversation as she told him about Ryan and how he was thrust into her life. She even went ahead and told him about a few of their adventures in getting into mischief and mayhem. Then came the part that she wished she could take back. The part of her life that she wished she could go back and avoid completely. It took a lot of careful words to explain to him how and why she had written the letter. Ultimately, it hadn't been her idea to do it. Scott had made her after he saw how much she was still writing to him and how she still felt about Tommy. Kim hadn't wanted to write it but Scott had threatened to kick her out if she didn't. She told him how Ryan had helped her say the right things in order to let Tommy down easy and not make him want to come after her. The horror of her whole situation came shortly afterward. She told Tommy how possessive he got and in a short amount of time. The possessiveness wasn't the biggest problem, he followed that with more and more anger. Ryan offered to help her, but after relying on people so much when she was in Angel Grove she had been determined to do it on her own. She tried to move back into the dorms and give up her allotments, but the dorms by that time were full. After seeing no way out, she had relented and decided to move in with Ryan for a while, taking his help only after exhausting every option to help herself. The night she was packing her things to move out was the night it all happened. Thankfully she didn't remember a lot of the beating she had gotten from Scott but she did remember that last thing she saw before lapsing into unconsciousness was Ryan standing above her. He had been calling to her, though she didn't actually remember hearing her name. She explained that her time in the coma passed in a flash, and interestingly enough, Ryan was the first person she saw when she woke up. At first she was unaware that she had been out for almost five years. Sure she knew that Ryan was happy to have his friend conscious again but that was to be expected. She didn't want to believe she had been out for that long, but the changes in Ryan and everything in her world were evidence enough. She touched briefly on the rehab she had gone through, but the important part of the story was through. The whole story was explained away in a matter of minutes. Tommy listened to the whole tale of strife and anguish experiencing same emotions as she went through in telling it.

He looked down and took a moment to absorb the story and calm the emotion trying to break free. Tommy lifted his head and rested his gaze back on Kimberly. Her face was pale and her eyes were swollen with as yet unshed tears. _She's waiting for forgiveness, for MY forgiveness. _After a moment, he opened his arms and beckoned her to him. She folded into his embrace and the dam of emotion broke free as she heard two words.

"I'm sorry."

She buried her face into his neck as the river of tears gushed forth and brought shudders and sobs with it. He placed a hand on the back of her head and tried to soothe her as a few tears of his own slipped down his cheek.

"Can you...", came a muffled voice from the crook of his neck, which he quickly interrupted.

"There's nothing to forgive, Kim", he soothed her through a satisfied smile.

She cried for a few minutes in his arms like she had done a few times before. This time was different, the pain was so much deeper, but knowing that he didn't hate her anymore was the best medicine for it. She sat there just enjoying his embrace for a few more moments before pulling back to arms length.

Tommy looked down and shook his head, "I'm so sorry I didn't come down or call you to make sure everything was alright."

Kim cupped his chin with one hand which made him look up at her, "You didn't know Tommy. There was no way you could have. I didn't think I needed help anyway. I was so sure of myself, that I could handle it."

The smile returned to his face when he realized she didn't hold anything against him, "Well I'm just glad you are alright and that there was someone there to help you when you needed it."

Kim nodded at him and after a moment, she spoke, "I hope this means we are still friends. I hope we can still rely and trust one another like we did before."

"Of course we are still friends, Kim. Not having you in my life was hard enough before, there's no way I would push you away now. To be honest though, the issue of trust and rebuilding a relationship might take a bit longer."

Kim couldn't help but bite her lip and nod. She had thought it would turn out far worse, and though her wildest dreams had something far better in mind, she was at least pleased to find there was hope.

* * *

Ryan awoke peacefully to find Kat sitting next to him. Actually, sleeping while leaning on the couch and sitting on the floor would be more accurate. He looked down at her where she rested her head against one of the couch cushions he was laying on. He thought she looked like an angel when asleep, but she fought so fiercely earlier to protect him, and she paid for it too. He lifted his hand and gently ran it across the nicely maturing bruise on her cheek. Kat startled for a second but calmed just as quickly and looked up at him.

He smiled at her sheepishly, "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."

"That's okay. It's good to see you are awake. How was your nap?"

He yawned slightly, "Seems like the nap did me good. I could still use a nights sleep but I'm okay for now I suppose."

Ryan swung his legs out and moved to a sitting position on the couch. Kat rose from her position on the floor and joined him on the couch. He still felt very tired, but it was much better than he had been when he arrived. His stomach growled and he looked at Kat sheepishly for a second time as he realized she had heard it too.

"Sorry."

"Not at all. You've been out for about an hour by the way. Kim and Tommy are still upstairs, I'll see if there is anything to eat for you."

"Thanks, Kat, I appreciate it."

Kat smiled back at him and ascended the stairs. As she got farther and farther up the stairs, she heard the voices of Tommy and Kimberly getting louder and louder. She turned the corner to find them with smiles on their faces and reminiscing about old times in Angel Grove.

"Well this is a pleasant surprise."

Kim swung her head halfway to the left and looked over the back of the couch at her, "Hey Kat! We were just talking about old times and old teams."

"I see. I take it that this means everything is sunshine and daises in the land of Tommy and Kimberly?"

Kim and Tommy's faces dropped a bit at that comment, but Tommy answered for the both of them.

"Well not exactly, but we are going to let the past be the past. We basically were just getting caught up on the past couple years of each others lives. We talked about the letter and why it happened. We were both at fault really, and she and I realize that better now."

Kim supplemented his answer, "Yeah, Kat. We are going to work on repairing our friendship first before diving into anything deeper. We have to get to know one another all over again."

"Well good. Ryan will be glad to hear that, and speaking of him, he's awake. Tommy, do you have anything for him to eat?"

Tommy looked over at Kim, "Rocky?"

Kim smiled back at him, "Sometimes."

"Yeah I'm sure I have something I can get for him to snack on. I have some steak and chicken marinating in the fridge for the dinner but I hadn't planned on starting those for a little bit yet. Conner and the other three Rangers should be getting out of school pretty soon and then they will be over pretty much as soon as they drop off their stuff at their houses."

Kim got up a bit hurriedly, anxious to go downstairs, "Well while you two scrounge for him I'm going to go kick his ass for scaring me like that."

Kim walked briskly toward the stairwell and down them even faster.

Tommy turned back to Kat, "Something tells me he's in some hot water for what he did."

"Maybe, but I think she's just more concerned than anything. Let's get the boy some food, shall we?", Kat smirked as she walked toward the kitchen.

* * *

Kim approached the couch to find that Ryan had fallen back asleep, only this time it was in a sitting position with his arm on the armrest and his chin cradled in his own hand. She softly sat down beside him and ran her hand through the hair on the side of his head.

"Time to rejoin the land of the living, Ryan", she whispered softly to him.

Ryan stirred awake and squinted at her next to him. As he slowly smiled at her, her worries about him melted away and he got a firm hug for his troubles.

"That had me a bit scared. I know you're a light sleeper, normally you would have woken up when you heard someone come down the stairs."

Ryan knew what had really scared her. His little stunt back on the hill with those weird bug looking things and the geometry teacher's worst nightmare.

"I'm sorry I scared you, sweetheart. I was just trying to protect the both of you. If I'd have lost you after all it took to get you back I..."

Ryan's emotion filled statement was cut short as Kim interrupted him and he broke into quiet sobs, "Ryan, you didn't. I'm still here. You don't have to worry about that. You know you can't get rid of me that easy."

That last statement however earned her a snort from him which left a bit of snot on the shoulder of her shirt.

"Oh boy, sorry bout the shirt, but you are the one who made me laugh", he said softly while still wearing his grin.

"Don't sweat it. It'll wash out. I'd wear it as a badge of honor as long as I still have you around. Besides, those aren't the first tears on it this afternoon."

"I take that to mean that you and Tommy had that discussion I hoped you would have?"

Kim sighed and rolled her eyes a bit, "Yes."

Ryan paused for a moment, waiting for her to continue, "And?"

Kim smiled, "Well we got to know where each other stood and told our side of the story to the other. You were right by the way, that letter had devastated him, mostly because he had been lifting weights with Rocky and had made Adam read it aloud.

He broke their embrace, cradled her head in his hands, and gently kissed her on the forehead. She brought her hands up to his and thats when he noticed it.

"Oh, Kim. Oh my god I hadn't realized."

"What?"

"The bandage on your head. How bad were you two hurt?"

"Not very badly Ryan. I have a bruised calf and forearms here. the bandage is just a small scalp wound, it bled a lot more than it actually hurt me. Kat has a bruised thigh, a fancy new shiner, and a sprained wrist. She has it braced and we were going to have Tommy x-ray it after you woke up. The machine is a little noisy."

"Kim why in the world would he have an x-ray machine in his basement?"

"You'll have your answers soon, but first how about a few bagel bites?"

Ryan and Kim turned their heads to find Tommy coming down the stairs with a plate and Kat closely behind.

"Bagel bites? A man after my own heart", Ryan said with a large grin.

"Hey, I'm a bachelor too you know. I can grill but that's about it, the rest is anything microwaveable."

"I like this guy already Kim."

"You would, he has your same taste in bachelor food", Kim said with a roll of her eyes.

As Ryan took a bite and a moment to savor it, Kat took the lead of the conversation, "So Tommy, you said something about answers?"

"Indeed I did. You are currently standing in the base of operations for the Power Rangers: Dino Thunder."

The shock of that statement almost made Ryan choke on his next bite. He swallowed hard and spoke quickly.

"WHAT! You mean all those multi-color California freak shows over the years are real?"

"Yes Ryan. Not only are they real, but also really dangerous. Kat come here please, before we go any farther I want to check your wrist."

Tommy took a hand held screen about 6x6 inches out of a drawer as Kat walked over to him. He waved it over her wrist and on the screen appeared a perfect real time x-ray photo.

Ryan watched Tommy intently, "You were right. That IS rather loud. Not enough to wake the dead or anything but definitely enough to wake up someone in the room."

"Well the good thing is I don't see anything broken Kat, but these ligaments are a bit loosely hanging as you move your wrist. Looks like a bad sprain but nothing major. You'll have to wear the brace for a couple days and it'll be sore for a while."

"So you see the x-ray image real time?"

"Yup, however it has its limitations. The focus of it is only ten inches, so it can't look through walls. It does work well though for any medical purpose and also for searching people."

"All you see is that black and white outline like a normal x-ray machine?"

"Yeah, haven't been able to make it do real colors or only penetrate certain layers including lead. The particles it emits and the physics involved pretty much make it impossible to do."

"Tommy, you do know you just crushed every boy's pre-pubescent dream of having goggles that look through womens clothing right? Including mine."

Tommy laughed while the women in the room just groaned in embarrassment, "I know Ryan, mine too. Sometimes physics can be cruel."

Still wearing a grin, Tommy put the device back into the drawer and turned to the main computer.

"This is the main computer of our lair. I am going to play you a video I made for just such occasions as we need to fill in a person or two on certain details quickly. Relax and watch the video, it'll take a couple minutes and I'll answer the questions I know you'll have afterward."

Ryan, Kim and Kat turned to the viewscreen and watched as it flickered to life with the same video that the Dino Thunder Rangers had watched only months before. Ryan went from looking at Kim like she had grown another head to watching Tommy out of the corner of his eye as he learned he had been evil. Kat's appearance evoked a smile from everyone, and when the video had ended, Ryan had a LOT of questions.

"Ok, so let me get this straight. Kim was one of the first Power Rangers, along with Tommy, who was evil at first. Kat was later the replacement for her, and I'm guessing that was when you left for Florida?"

Kim nodded at him, "Correct on all three counts."

"So there have been like what then, twelve sets of powers since the beginning? What happened to them all?"

"Most of them were destroyed, but some were changed. The Zeo crystal was used to power the Turbo powers. Billy created the zords for that team and enhanced the power output of the crystal to fight the new foe that had shown up. All of the other sets of powers were either destroyed, ran out of power as the villains were defeated, or became dormant once the evil they were fighting had been defeated," stated Tommy.

"Were these all in the same city? I mean except for the space ones."

"Nope. After the Space Rangers they kind of spread out a bit, but they stayed mostly in California. Before that though, yes they had all been in Angel Grove. Even the Space Rangers spent a lot of time there. I got a chance to talk to a few previous Ranger mentors from time to time, and all we could come up with is that Zordon, the big blue head guy in the beginning, had put the original Command Center in a place where he could monitor what was a hot spot for evil paranormal activity. When his tube was destroyed by the Space Rangers by Zordon's request, it neutralized all the paranormal evil in the Galaxy, including the hot spot in Angel Grove. Also that wave that was sent out by his tubes destruction caused all of the current villains we knew of to become normal humans or the alien species they had been before with no evil intentions. The Lightspeed Rescue Team, located in Mariner Bay, was the only other team to have paranormal villains, but the wave of good may have passed by their bad guys as at the time they were dormant and only awoke later. All of the rest of the teams villains were either aliens or mutations of some sort but before Zordon's tube was broken they were almost all paranormal."

Kat then put her two cents in, "Except of course for the Machine Empire, whom is almost solely the reason we switched to the technological powers of the Zeo Crystal."

"Yes, as you can see there was one exception on either side of the main event of the time line, but the theory still held up."

Ryan sat back in his chair to absorb all the new information, "So what about the foe you are fighting now? Not paranormal?"

"No. We learned not too long ago that he is actually Anton Mercer. I used to be his assistant on a few digs and experiments. One of the experiments produced the Tyrannodrones, those are the things that jumped you earlier today along with his henchman named Zeltrax. Apparently the other experiment we had been working on turned Anton into Mesogog. While it isn't a total nor a permanent change, from what I've understood from conversations with Trent about it, it is still currently a losing battle for Anton.

Ryan cocked his head to one side, "Trent?"

Tommy looked Ryan straight in the eyes, "Trent is Anton Mercer's adopted son."

Ryan's eyes bugged for a moment and then he sighed, "Well, that certainly gives new meaning to keeping the fight in the family. How many rangers do you have at the moment?"

"We currently have five. The four you saw today, and me. My ranger color is black."

Kim couldn't help but burst out laughing. The other three people in the room just looked at her in confusion until she held up four fingers to Kat. Kat took a moment but once she understood she couldn't help but laugh.

Tommy broke the sound of laughter, "Ummm whats so funny ladies?"

Kim tried to calm herself enough to speak, "You HAHAHAHA... You have had four ranger colors now! BWAHAHAHAHA! You could call yourself the Rainbow Ranger! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

This created more laughter between the girls and a smile for Ryan.

"No no Kim HAHA! Green, white, red, and black. *gasp* He would be the Christmas Ranger! GYAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!", exclaimed Kat.

After that Ryan couldn't hold back any longer and erupted into rolls of laughter with the girls on the couch. After a minute or so of laughing Ryan went to high five Kat for her excellent quip and he hurt her wrist a bit.

"Oh god Kat, I forgot about your wrist. You ok?

She grabbed her wrist in pain and winced a bit, "Yeah that hurt, but it was worth it. That crack was pure gold!"

Tommy patiently waited for the laughter to completely subside before speaking again, "Yeah yeah, yuck it up. I..."

He was suddenly interrupted as the phone rang. Tommy rolled his chair over closer to the desk where he could pick up his phone.

"Oliver residence. Yup. Yeah he's awake and he's fine at the moment. Nope not broken, just sprained badly. Ok. Yeah I'm going to go fire up the grill right now, call the kids for me and make sure they are on their way. Ok, bye."

"Hayley I take it?", Kat asked.

"Yeah, she just got done with the police report on the incident and securing the property. She had to go out and get plywood to put in the windows for now. She called her cousin to help her. That worked out well actually because I think he is in the window business."

"Would have worked better if I hadn't broken them with a flying Trainodrone."

"No no, Tyrannodrone, like the dinosaur."

"Ahh. Whats the rest of the bad guy's names again?"

"Well head bad guy is Mesogog, the henchman you fought today is Zeltrax. There's also another you haven't seen yet, her name is Elsa."

"Is she hot?"

Kim looked at him with an appalled look, "Ryan!"

"What? I just want to know because that would really suck if I ever had to hit a hot chick! It's just not proper ya know!"

Tommy just rolled his eyes and got out of his chair, "Well I need to go fire up the grill. The other Rangers and Hayley are on the way so I should get that started."

"What about the other topics we need to discuss Tommy?"

"We can handle that after dinner, Ryan. Besides, I want everyone to hear it anyway, less to explain later."

"Food first. I can handle that."

As Tommy walked towards the stairs, the three on the couch stood up as well and followed behind him.

* * *

Soon after they had gotten upstairs, Hayley walked through the front door, followed shortly by Conner, Kira, Ethan, and Trent.

"Well hello to you all. Good to see that those Tyrannodrones didn't do any permanent damage", Hayley said with a smile.

Ryan frowned, "Yeah well, seems like the Cyberspace took the brunt of the battle."

"Oh that's fine, I'm just glad you three are okay. The windows can be replaced, people can't."

"Well everyone is ok, and its time to get this party started. Ryan if you'd like to help me with the grill, and we can let the ladies handle the side dishes", Tommy stated as he began walking towards the kitchen.

Ryan looked at Kim, "Sounds like a good plan to me. Ladies?"

Kim answered for them all, "Yup we can handle that. Come on girls."

* * *

Tommy opened the back door and held it open as Ryan came through with a tupperware container filled with almost a dozen steaks swimming in marinade. Tommy closed the door behind him as Ryan set the steaks down on the side of the grill.

"Hey, not a bad setup. My dad has a stainless steel grill too."

Tommy grinned up at him from where he was turning on the gas beneath the main body of the grill, "Yeah it's a really nice grill. My father got it for me for Christmas the year I got this house. He said that since I have a new house I should have a grill to go with it."

Ryan grinned widely, "Yeah sounds like something even my dad would say. He loves using his. I remember back when we remodeled the inside of the house, we had the entire kitchen, living room and half of the family room torn apart from floor to ceiling. We had no stove so we basically had to cook with the grill. We didn't have a kitchen, but we ate better than we ever did before, like kings I tell ya."

Tommy stood up, opened the lid and fired up the grill, " Gotta give this thing a few minutes to heat up. I love this grill, not just because of who gave it to me, but because its just so damned nice to have."

Ryan took a seat in one of the chairs on his back porch and noticed a cooler beside it.

"A Cooler?"

Tommy motioned to it, "Open it."

Ryan lifted the lid on the cooler and found some Budweiser and Strongbow, "Ahh, I see. I take it you got that information from Kim?"

"Yeah she told me you aren't a fan of normal beer. I'm just glad the market had the stuff."

Ryan pulled a Strongbow out and then lifted a Budweiser out for Tommy. He accepted the beer with a nod. They both popped the caps easily, toasted each other silently and took a swig.

Ryan nodded as he tasted the sweet flavor of his drink and looked at the label, "Some places don't carry it because its imported. I could drink this stuff all night."

"She and I went to the store while you were still out downstairs. My basement is shielded from Mesogog's scanners so we felt it would be ok. We had to get sides for the steaks and she decided to get some adult refreshment as well", Tommy said, as he turned to the grill and tested the heat with his hand.

"So I take it your talk with her went well?"

Tommy took a long swallow of beer before he answered, "Well, it was kind of more like a mutual apology."

"Excuse me? What did you do wrong?"

"Well because after the letter I didn't check up on her like I should have. We both decided that the relationship we had is over and gone. We are two decidedly different people now and that if we based any relationship on the one we remember then all we will end up doing is hurting each other."

Ryan tips his beer in Tommy's direction, "Very wise of you."

"We may eventually end up together again, I don't know. She told me you helped write the letter by the way and while it may have been ok to read that while I was alone, the public reading as it ended up wasn't the most fun thing in the world."

"Sorry about that, Tommy. I didn't get informed as to where she was sending it. I figured she would have sent it to your house like any normal person would."

Tommy laughed, "Well we both know now just how un-normal she is huh?"

Ryan laughed with him as he ended his sentence only to be interrupted by the back door opening. Tommy and Ryan stopped laughing and turned towards the door to find Kimberly poking her head out.

Ryan grinned at her, "Hello my dear, your ears burning?"

"No but I figured I was the topic of conversation out here. I actually came out here to grab a couple of beers for the ladies inside and to make sure you were resting still. I looked out the window and noticed Tommy had one."

"Ahh, jealousy. You want a bow?"

"Yes and bud for the other two girls, please."

Ryan pops open the cooler again and digs out a Strongbow and two Budweisers for her, then hands them up.

"Thank you boys, as you were", She says with a girly giggle. She wears a smirk as she walks through the door and back inside.

"You know Tommy, I can't really blame you for not calling her."

"Really?", Tommy asked with a puzzled look before turning towards the grill to lay the steaks on. _Wow that's strange, I would have figured him to defend her position._

"Yeah, women are strange animals. I had a similar situation happen to me. I stopped chasing a long time ago. It just never made sense to me that a woman would push a guy away just so he would chase after her. The games just really aren't neccessary."

"That's what I thought was happening, but now I realize that it wasn't like that. She was in trouble and I wasn't there for her. I can't change it but maybe I can make up for it someday."

"Nothing to make up for I say. She's a big girl. That's why I let her keep on with that guy even though I knew he was bad news. Sometimes you gotta let people make their own mistakes or they'll never learn. I sure as hell never wanted her to have to learn it the way she did though."

"Yeah I hear that. Thats an experience no one should ever have to go through. Anyways, after I got that letter I got to know Kat a bit more. We even dated for a while."

Ryan abruptly proceeded to do a major spit take and came out of it gasping for air.

"Woah! Ryan you ok man?", He said through a smile.

Ryan coughed a few more times and choked out a few words, "Yeah, I'm good."

Tommy couldn't help but keep laughing, "Sorry about that. I noticed how you two looked at each other earlier and so I figured you were interested."

"I have no idea what you are talking about, but thanks for the heads up", He stated while trying to look completely innocent.

"Riiiight", Tommy said as he rolled his eyes and turned back to the grill. He placed the steak and chicken onto the grill and then closed the lid.

A brief moment of semi-awkward silence passed between the two men. The only thing that could be heard was the sounds of nature, and the commotion from the women in the kitchen on the other side of the door.

"I want to thank you by the way", Tommy finally said.

"For what?"

Tommy turned to him and stared him straight in the eyes, "For protecting her when I couldn't be there for her. For everything you've done for her. After Trini died, I tried to imagine what it would be like if I were to lose her. Your head tells you, 'Its ok, she's just your friend. Her death would be just as hard to take as Trini's is', but your heart knows different. Your heart has no words. It just feels like someone kicked you in the stomach as hard as they could and you'll never be able to breathe again. After the funeral is when I realized that I'll always love her, no matter what. She said in her letter and in person after the funeral, that she was happy in Florida, so I did my best to let it go. I had to. Shortly after that is when Kat and I broke up. While she realized that she was more than just Kim's replacement to the team, that's all she would ever be to me, and wasn't fair to her. In college it was the same with Hayley. She was infatuated with me, but once she got to know me well, she realized how much baggage I was lugging around. We ended up as good friends and nothing more."

Tommy let out a frustrated sigh and turned around to check on the steaks, "Look at me. I barely know you and I'm venting all my frustrations and checkered pasts to you."

"Relax man. I have that effect on people sometimes. I tend to have a disarming personality."

"Say man, will you go check to make sure the rest of the stuff is ready inside? The steaks are almost done."

Ryan grabbed his beer off the ground beside his chair and slowly lurched to his feet, "No problem man."

Ryan clapped Tommy on the shoulder for reassurance, then turned the doorknob and walked inside. As the door closed behind him no one noticed Tommy's red puffy eyes, or the solitary tear that rolled down his cheek.

After Tommy reentered his house with the perfectly prepared steaks, the evening proceeded as planned with no interruptions. The three women had bonded, and in one case re-bonded, as the sides had been prepared inside. The group of six welcomed three more into their circle of friendship that evening. Although stories were shared and laughs were had, elsewhere, something more sinister was taking shape.

* * *

Mesogog was growing impatient. Elsa had had more than enough time to accomplish her task. What in the world was taking her so long? Perhaps it was time that he found out for himself.

He waited until his impatience grew to an unignorable level and rose off his throne with an annoyed snarl. Mesogog stormed off in the direction of Elsa's laboratory with the intent of ripping her in two. How dare she make him wait so long? She had better have something positive to report or it was going to put him into an even fouler mood than he was already experiencing. He opened the door to her lab and entered. She was hunched over a control panel engrossed in their readouts and apparently doing some calculations.

"Elssssa, report", He hissed angrilly.

She lifted her head and turned toward him with a nervous expression on her face, "My lord, the calculations to use the Umbracite Crystal with the metamorphosis chamber are difficult but they are coming along. I should have it ready to create your monster in less than six hours."

This enraged him and he responded with an almost outright roar, "That iss not good enough Elsa!"

She held up her hands as if to appease his anger and explained, "My apologies my lord, but the calculations must be done with care as to prevent an overload in the chamber. The power of the crystal and its inherent instabilities makes working with it a volitile situation at best, disasterous at the worst. It would be a bad idea to have the whole island explode."

He took what she had said with serious consideration before lobbying his much calmer reply, "Very well Elsa, work as swiftly as possible. Give me an update in two hourssss."

"It shall be done my lord", she nodded.

Mesogog turned around quickly and left the lab still in a supremely foul mood, but at least he knew that progress was being made. Zeltrax was recovering in the medical area and was doing as well as could be expected but he was far from in any shape to cause any chaos to entertain him. The cybernetics that Mesogog hed rebuilt him with were heavily damaged and some had to be replaced, however they had quite a bit to do with his continued survival. The Orange dino gem was indeed the most powerful of them all. Hopefully, Elsa would not fail him, and then the power of the long extinct dinosaurs would finally be his.

The evil cackle that reverberated throughout the hallways would have scared even Satan himself.

* * *

"Wow Tommy, those were some good steaks", Ryan said as he leaned back in his chair.

Conner nodded, "Boy you said it. Everything was good Dr. O."

"Yeah and don't forget the potatoes and broccoli the ladies made", Added Ethan. "Absolutely delicious."

"Agreed", said Tommy. "Now for the final event of the evening. Lets clear off this table and then we can take our drinks downstairs and have the discussion we all need to hear."

Everyone silently nodded and began to clear plates and silverware. This was finished quite quickly with everyone helping, so after the first trip, Ryan dove into the fridge and fetched fresh beers for those of drinking age. Conner followed right behind Ryan and tried to get a beer of his own. Connor got a few feet away from the fridge before feeling the bottle being ripped from his hands. He turned to see Ryan still standing by the fridge, shaking his head, and controlling the bottle's flight through the air towards him and back into the fridge.

"Ok, now that was cool."

"Isn't it though? You still don't get a beer Conner."

"Damn."

"Downstairs. Shoo."

Ryan closed the fridge door then walked back into the dining room and handed out the various bottles on the way to the stairs. Once everyone was assembled in the basement where all of the Ranger equipment was kept, Tommy began to speak.

"Thanks to all of you for coming tonight. So far we have had good food and some good fun, but the real reason for tonights get together is now. As you all now know for the past few months Hayley and I have operated out of this basement to create the latest Ranger team. We currently have five rangers, Connor, the red Ranger, Kira ,the yellow Ranger, Ethan, the blue Ranger, Trent, the white Ranger, and me the black Ranger. What you don't yet know is that we all have dino gems."

Tommy nodded and all the Rangers in the room rolled up their sleeves to reveal the silver wristbands with their dino gems of their corresponding Ranger color in the middle of the band. Ryan looked like he was about to speak and Tommy raised a hand to silence him.

"I know you have a question Ryan but just wait until I finish and you'll find that most of them will be answered."

Ryan nodded and kept silent.

"Along with the Ranger powers these gems give us, we also have other powers available to us in our current, unmorphed state. Connor possesses super speed, Kira has a super loud scream in her arsenal, Ethan can make his skin super tough, which enhances his strength a bit too, Trent can camouflage himself in any surrounding, and I can become completely invisible. Some of these powers are more useful than others. The powers Trent and I have make us extremely suited to stealth missions and Connor's super speed makes him able to avoid things easily. Kira and Ethan's powers are a bit more situationally oriented, of course."

Tommy took a pause for a sip of beer and then continued by walking closer to where Ryan was seated.

"Ryan here has recently found another gem. His power is telekinesis."

Conner's eyes lit up with glee, "Oh so THAT'S what you did with the beer bottle in the kitchen!"

Ryan looked at him, "Yeah ain't it cool?"

Kim, whom was sitting next to him, smacked his shoulder while he was looking away at Conner, "Ryan stop showing off!"

"Sorry Kim, he was trying to steal a beer from the fridge, I couldn't just let it happen, he is a minor after all."

Everyone in the room turned their gaze all at once from Ryan to Conner and gave him the same accusing stare.

"WHAT!", Conner exclaimed with an unapologetic look.

A collective sigh of exasperation was felt in the room and Tommy continued.

"Anyway, we can talk about Conner's poor beverage choices later. Ryan, in a recent ambush by our enemy Mesogog you used this telekinesis to basically make yourself a human "cold" bomb. I say that because there was definitely an explosion of concussive force, however it wasn't caused by combustion or a nuclear reation like a normal bomb is. Hayley you were there, what happened?"

Hayley took a moment to think in her chair by the computer, "Well, as near as I can tell it seems like he just balled up all of the telekinetic energy he could muster, and forced it out away from him. This caused anything around him to fly off in all directions. It was ballsy I'll say that much. What ever gave you that idea Ryan?"

Ryan just smiled and calmly explained, "Well another of the online games I play is called City of Heroes. I have a kinetics blaster that has a power called Nova. It basically takes all of his energy and creates a kinetic explosion around him causing the enemies to take massive damage. The downside is it takes all of your energy to do it and leaves you unable to regenerate energy for a few moments afterward."

Hayley nodded and understood, "Yeah that pretty much describes your situation in a nutshell, Ryan"

"It does?"

Hayley looked a Tommy who nodded a "Go ahead" at her.

"Well its like this, the gems that Tommy and the kids have, give you extra powers while not morphed. While this is a big benefit, we found out that if you don't have the gem in an actual morpher bracelet, rather than draw all the power from the gem, it actually drains the power from your body. So in a sense what you described as happening in your game is exactly what happened to you today. You used up nearly all the energy in your body, it made you very disoriented, dizzy, and tired, just like a bout of severe exhaustion."

"We used the gem powers before we got morpher bracelets too, but we didn't use them quite to the degree you did", Ethan stated.

Tommy took over at this point, "The powers you possess are thus far the strongest gem we have seen yet. They are also the most offensively oriented we have seen as well, as all our powers are mostly defensive. The powers we have can also be used while we are morphed, however usually, we have no need to because our ranger suits provide quite a bit of defensive protection. I haven't said anything to the other Rangers, but Hayley and I think you would be a great addition to the team and we would like you to become our sixth ranger."

Ryan didn't move. All he could do was stare at Tommy as if he was a deer in the headlights. Kim and Kat wore an equally shocked expression but recovered quickly. The teenagers in the room looked shocked for a split second and erupted with shouts and high fives. Kim and Kat responded with their own exclamations as they recovered.

"Wow! Say yes!"

"Oh my god, do it man!"

"Sweet!"

"Tommy are you kidding?"

"Are you serious?"

Tommy silenced the room quickly before it got too out of hand, "EVERYONE BE QUIET!"

The room fell silent again and Tommy spoke again in a quieter voice, "You don't have to say yes right away, but for the time being I'd like you to use this bracelet and create a morpher with your gem. You don't have to use the Ranger powers, but this way if you get attacked by Mesogog and decide to use your telekinetic powers again, it won't endanger your life."

Ryan looked up at Tommy who was handing a silver bracelet out to him like they were all wearing.

"Yeah that's probably a good idea, Tommy. Dying at a young age isn't exactly on my 'To Do' list", Ryan said with a smile.

Ryan reached up to take the bracelet from Tommy. He then stood up and took the gem out of his pocket and placed it into the center of the socket of the bracelet. The bracelet lit up with a flash of brilliant orange light as the gem bonded with it. After the glow had subsided, Ryan placed the bracelet on his left wrist and lowered his arm.

"There are two things you should also know while you have that. One, its also a communicator, think about who you want to contact who also has a wristband while touching the gem on top and then speak. Two, in order to call up your morpher, should you intend to use it, twist your wrist and concentrate."

Ryan brought his left arm back up in front of him and twisted it as instructed. Instantly the bracelet flashed orange and a mechanical, orange dinosaur skull appeared on his arm.

"Tommy is this skull what I think it is?"

"Yeah Ryan, it looks like a Velociraptor skull."

"Yeah... that's what I thought."

Conner walked over and hooked Ryan around the neck with his arm, "So Ryan, looks like you're going to be wearing a lot of orange in the future."

Ryan looked at him strangely then smirked, "Really? I thought you guys were just weird."

"Well maybe that too."

Kim stepped closer to Ryan as Conner released him, "Are you sure you want to do this Ryan? Being a Ranger is a BIG responsibility."

Ryan looked at her stoically, "Well its not like I said yes yet. Being a Ranger is a big decision I know, I watched the video and have a bit of an idea of how it can play hell with your life. I'd probably have to move here from Florida too huh?"

Kim nodded.

"Well I hope you'll all understand if I say I'll get back to you on that", Ryan said as he took one last look at the orange raptor skull on his wrist and then dismissed it in a shower of orange light.

Tommy placed a hand on his shoulder and looked him in the eyes, "Yes, its a huge decision. Take all the time you need, but remember, we do need help with Mesogog, and there are no guarantees that he will ignore you just because you say you don't want to help us. In fact its pretty probable that you'll be his target for a while because of the fact that your gem is so powerful."

"Right."

Ryan paused a few moments after he got done speaking and then executed a rather large yawn.

Kim took that opportunity to boss Ryan around, "Ok young man, you still need more sleep because of your little "Nova" this afternoon. I'm sure you guys need to get back home as well before your parents ground you."

"Very true Kim, it IS getting late. Kira would you take everyone home please?", Tommy asked.

"Sure thing Dr. O. Ok boys, grab your stuff and lets roll."

Ethan passed Ryan on his way to the stairs and said quietly, "Thats another game you need to show me."

Ryan smiled, "Sure thing man. Any time."

"Well for what its worth, welcome to the team", Ethan grinned widely and shook his hand.

"Thanks, all four of you are cool kids in my book", He replied.

Ethan clapped Ryan on the shoulder and then joined his friends in walking up the stairs.

Kat stopped the two of them before they could follow the teens up the stairs, "Hey Kim? Can I ask you a question?"

"Yeah sure."

"Would you mind if I came over and crashed at your place? I got a small hotel room when I arrived but I've completed the research I came to do. I can call my boss and schedule some time off but the company I work for probably wont pick up the tab for the extra time in the hotel room."

"Sure Kat, I'm sure Ryan wouldn't mind at all", she mused as she looked straight at him.

Ryan shoved her a little bit and gave her a scalding glare.

Kat and Kim laughed at Ryan as his face began turning red.

"Fuck both of you, ok?"

That comment only made them giggle more.

"Ladies I thought the teenagers already left?", He asked with an accusing stare.

Kim and Kat settled themselves and Kat had yet another question, "You have a couch Kim?"

Ryan didn't give her a chance to answer, "Oh no no no, I am not letting you sleep on the couch."

Kim smiled and chose her words carefully as to not give Ryan any openings to crack a joke, "Well actually Ryan and I had planned on sharing my bed. All I have at the moment to sleep on is the couch and my double bed. Ryan is like a brother to me and we have shared a bed before, so it's not like that's a big deal. He can play the gentleman if he wants and you can take his spot and sleep next to me."

Ryan couldn't help but smile.

"What Ryan?"

"Oh nothing Kim, just thinking about two half naked women in a bed together thats all."

Kim and Kat rolled their eyes.

Kat chose to ignore Ryan for now, "I'll need to be able to find my way to your apartment, can you follow me to the hotel?"

Kim nodded, "No problem, lead the way."

Tommy noticed them heading for the stairs from where he was conversing with Hayley and spoke up, "Goodnight you three, watch out for bad guys."

Kim waved to him goodbye, "No worries, we have Ryan to protect us." She finished her statement with a swat at Ryan's ass which was headed up the stairs ahead of her.

"Hey, hey now!"

Tommy turned back to Hayley with a somber expression, "Make sure that the orange powers are ready to go, even if he says he's not going to use them, he may not get a choice."

* * *

Kim, Kat and Ryan arrived a short while later back at Kim's apartment.

"Good thing I didn't unpack much, that went pretty fast."

"Yeah lucky us you don't own nearly as many clothes as Kim."

Kim's mouth dropped open in protest as she turned the key to unlock her apartment, "Gee thanks Ryan, you know, the clothing jokes ARE getting a little old. That crack probably would have landed you on the couch if you weren't going to be there anyway."

Ryan just laughed.

"Want her bags in your room Kim?", Ryan asked as they all three walked in through the front door.

"Yeah thats probably where they will have to go anyway. I put those couple extra blankets in the hall closet."

"Ok."

Ryan dropped Kat's bags just inside Kim's bedroom door and turned around to open the closet. He grabbed one for him and stopped for a second.

"Kim do you need another in there as well?"

"Nope we will be ok. Shouldn't get too cold tonight."

Ryan peeked his head into her room, "Ok then I'm going to go turn off lights and lay down. Goodnight ladies."

Kat and Kim answered in unison, "Goodnight Ryan." The girls giggled as Ryan rolled his eyes and closed the door behind him.

"Wow Kim, this is going to be so much fun. It'll be like we were in high school again."

Kim grinned broadly, "Yeah like when you used to come sleep over at Aisha's with me and her. We talked about nothing but Ranger stuff, celeb gossip..."

"And boys. Don't forget about the boys," Kat interrupted.

"Yes, and of course boys. Quite a bit about a certain white Ranger too, if I recall correctly."

Kat turned away to fish something out of one of her bags, "Why, I have no idea what you are talking about."

"Kat? Go take a shower. I smell bullshit."

Kat turned to face Kimberly with a half shocked, half laughing expression on her face that caused them both to burst into fits of laughter.

Kim remembered about the third person in the house and stopped herself shortly, "Oh hey, not so loud. I don't want to wake Ryan up. That boy scared me half to death today, he needs some sleep."

"Yes, he did look quite tired carrying my bags in here, but he wouldn't take no for an answer."

"Yeah he's like that. Sometimes, especially when he has first met a woman, he goes into full gentleman mode. He is a bit goofy and forgetful at times but I guess he does that whole gentleman thing to make a good first impression. He doesn't do that as much for me anymore, he knows I preferr him just the way he is."

"I see. Does he forget a lot of stuff?"

Kim finished getting into her pajamas and sat on the side of the bed, "Well I don't think that he does it on purpose and it's usually just minor stuff. Stuff that everyone forgets, anyone but him though wouldn't think to apologize for it. When it really counts, he is always there."

"Ahh, I see. So he just cares about others, thats all. Thats not such a bad thing. All of us Rangers, past and present have been the same way."

Kim laughed, "Forgetful too, like that white Ranger we mentioned earlier."

"He seems like a really nice guy Kim. He should be proud of himself that he's not like most of the male population in this world."

"I suppose so, I just wish he didn't have a lower view of himself like that. I mean its nothing thats going to make him a bad person or a homicidal maniac one day, I just wish he didn't see himself like that."

"Oh, thats ok, Kim. All you can do is treat him the same you always have. He will come around", Kat said as she pulled a long shirt over her head.

She walked to the opposite side from Kimberly and sat down on it herself.

"I guess you are right, Kat. Ok, lets get some sleep, it's been a long day."

"Yeah you said it, and It's ok that you worry about him. He's your hero."

Kim turned off the light next to her and then they both slid under the covers. She then curled up and fell asleep still thanking God for her hero.

* * *

Ryan woke up in the middle of the night sometime. He felt around at the coffee table in front of the couch and found his cell phone to check the time. _3:56. Yeesh. _He uncovered himself and walked towards the bathroom. _Well a 4 am pee call is what I get for not breaking the seal on it before I went to bed. Didn't really drink much anyway. _He entered the bathroom, did what he came for and flushed, knowing Kim was a heavy sleeper. Ryan went back to his couch, laid back down and covered back up. Before his eyes were closed for long he felt someone nearby him.

"May I help you?"

Kat let out a small squeak as she realized he wasn't asleep.

She whispered harshly, "Next time just open your eyes ok? That was a little creepy how you knew I was there before you opened your eyes."

Ryan opened his eyes and smiled. She was dressed in a long Winnie-the-pooh T-shirt and as far as he could tell, nothing else. He was awake immediately as he realized that seeing her dressed like that and this close to her was awakening other parts of him as well.

"Well that still doesn't change the question Kat. What are you doing up at such an hour?"

"I couldn't sleep very well. Kim hogs the covers."

Ryan let out a small laugh, "Yeah you gotta know how to deal with her. Whenever I'm forced to sleep next to her I always just hog the covers back when I wake up. Then when she tugs back to get under them, instead of pulling the blanket, it moves her closer instead. Problem solved."

"Yeah well we have been playing tug of war for the past half hour and I'm tired of it. I heard someone rustling about out here and I figured it was you. Can I sleep out here with you?"

Ryan bit his lip as he tried hard to think about ice cold showers, and other things of a distinctly non-sexual nature.

"Umm, not that I ever complain about sleeping with a beautiful woman, but wouldn't that be a bit improper?"

Kat thought about it for a moment, "Yeah I guess so. Tell you what then I'll sleep on the floor beneath you. It's a big blanket so I'm sure it will reach."

Ryan sighed, "And now you come up with an idea that goes against my gentlemanly instinct. How about I take the floor and you take the couch."

"You sure?"

"Yes, yes. I insist."

"Well ok then."

Ryan got up, taking the blanket with him and waited until she laid down on the couch. He covered her with half of the blanket and then she handed him a spare throw pillow from the couch.

"Thank you", he said.

Ryan then sat on the floor and crawled under his side of the blanket and tried to think about even more sobering thoughts as he fell asleep.

* * *

Morning came to the Hart household a few hours later. The early morning light came through the sliding glass doors to the back porch and hit Ryan in the face. He groaned and tried to cover the light with his right hand. He heard a quiet sigh from just beneath his chin and he stiffened in a bit of panic. He became fully awake and realized that not only was Kat laying on top of his left side, cuddled to him, but her left leg was draped across his lower body, and he had a handful of what felt like her butt.

Kat stirred awake and slowly looked up to find Ryan awake already and staring up at her.

"Sorry. There was a draft getting under the blanket from where it was draped over the edge of the couch, so I joined you on the floor."

Ryan somehow found his voice, even though it cracked a bit, "Ummm... yeah... no problem."

Being that Ryan also tended to sleep in just a shirt and underwear, there was quite a bit of skin on skin underneath the blanket and most of it was very close to both of their most sensitive body parts. Ryan had been already aware of this for a while and the sensations were slowly driving him insane.

Kat moved her leg slightly and brushed against the reason for his "tension" accidentally. Ryan winced and Kat looked up at him in a full shade of crimson.

"Oh... That's probably my fault too. Sorry."

Ryan blushed a deep shade of maroon himself, "Yep, you definitely caused that."

The comment made her blush even deeper but she didn't move away yet. She was drawn to him and still didn't quite know why.

"Just think of it as a thank you for yesterday. Without what you did we would all three be hurt a lot more than we are now."

She scooted up and over the top of him a bit, and then leaned slowly down to kiss him. Their lips met and instantly both tasted a hot fire consume their senses. The fire kept getting hotter and hotter until it grew into a need, a thirst they could not quench. Their lips parted at the same time and they began tasting tongue, lips, and cheeks. Ryan pulled her out of the kiss with a gentle caress of her face with his right hand. It took a moment for both of them to regain their normal breathing to be able to speak.

"That's quite possibly the best thank you I've ever gotten. However I don't really know you all that well. Maybe we shouldn't do this quite yet."

Kat nodded with a blush, "You're right, I'm sorry."

Ryan gently shook his head, "Nothing to be sorry about, hon. Its just that I don't make it a habit of starting a relationship on lust. Lord knows there's plenty of that."

All the sudden Kat got a horrified look on her face and started to scoot away from him, "Oh my god no, I mean sure I feel it too but I wasn't... Well what I mean is..."

Ryan stopped her stammering by holding his hands up, "Now now, I didn't mean to imply thats what you were trying to do. I was just was setting a guideline for us, and more for myself. I am far too interested in you to fuck it up by a little premature hanky panky. However, I'll say this much, thats the most intense first base I've ever had the pleasure to enjoy."

Kat was still unable to speak but her face stayed a very deep shade of red.

"Now, why don't we go get cleaned up and dressed before our benefactor wakes up and finds us in this awkward position."

Kat nodded. She still felt a bit awkward and a lot embarrassed, but some of what he had said made her feel good. She decided to return the favor.

"Ryan why don't you hit the shower first. I'll stay in the kitchen and whip up some breakfast for the three of us."

Ryan grinned from ear to ear, "That sounds awesome. I'm sure the smell of breakfast will wake up sleeping beauty too."

"Or your shower. Save us some hot water ok?"

"I'm pretty sure that won't be a problem."

His comment only caused her to blush more as she moved to get off if him and took the blanket with her to protect her modesty.

Ryan fished his shampoo and razor out of his bag and then walked toward the bathroom. He closed the door behind him and then took a look straight down, "Oh yes saving hot water won't be a problem. It's definitely a cold shower for you my friend. That Kat will be the death of me I swear it."

* * *

Kimberly awoke to see no one next to her. As her other senses sprang to life, she heard the shower running and noticed the faint smell of something cooking. She decided to get dressed and investigate. The door crept open slowly, and from behind it popped out Kimberly's tousled mess of hair. The door came open further and she could now see that Kat had her back to her and was cooking something at the stove. It smelled like she had just finished with a couple stacks of pancakes. This information meant that it was probably Ryan in the shower, and she had to pee like you wouldn't believe.

She knocked on the door, "Ryan you in there?"

"Good morning sleepyhead and no, there's no Ryan here."

She smirked as she heard his typical smart ass reply, "Can I come in and pee please?"

"Sure, its open", Came his muffled voice.

She opened the door and then closed it quickly behind her. She went over to the toilet and began what she came to do.

"No peeking Kim", Ryan called from behind the shower curtain.

Kim rolled her eyes, "Oh please like I'm interested in that."

She finished and was about to leave, but then she heard his reply.

"You were when you were incredibly drunk."

Kim smacked her forehead in disbelief. Ryan poked his head out of the curtain as he saw her silouhette walk back towards the toilet.

"Just for that...", She said while poising her hand above the flush handle.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!", came the plea for mercy.

She hit the handle and Ryan moved quickly to avoid the spray of water from the shower head which had become very hot. He didn't make it quite in time and his hollering and cursing could be heard well into the kitchen after Kim had left the bathroom and closed the door behind her.

Kat turned to see what the commotion was about and saw Kim walking into the kitchen.

"Good morning, whats he yelling about?"

"I had to pee, he made a snide comment when I went in there, so I flushed", she stated matter-of-factly leaning against the counter with her arms crossed and wearing a smug grin.

Kat laughed.

"Hey Kim, come here!", came a call from the bathroom.

"You're not going to try and take revenge on me are you?"

"No no", came the muffled reply. "Just come here for a quick second!"

Kim walked over to the bathroom door and found Ryan peeking around the corner of the door.

"So? Why am I here?"

"Well, when a mommy and a daddy love each other very much..."

Kim rolled her eyes and began to walk away.

Ryan shot his arm out the door and turned her back towards him, "I'm just kidding, why I called you however, is because I forgot to bring clean clothes with me into the bathroom. Can you grab my bag for me please?"

"You didn't bring any with you?"

"I was in a rush."

That reply earned him a strange look from Kimberly.

"I'll explain later ok? Just please get me some clothes?"

Kim sighed and turned away from the door, towards the living room where his bags were. She pulled him out a pair of underwear, blue jeans and while looking for a shirt she came across one of her favorites. She pulled out the shirt and took all three items back to the bathroom door.

"Wait a sec Kim. Did you pull out the shirt I think you did?"

Kim nodded vigorously with an evil grin.

"Why?"

"Because I'm evil and I enjoy torturing you."

"No choice eh?"

She shook her head while keeping the same grin.

Ryan sighed and held his hand out for the clothes. She handed them over and he closed the door.

"You are so getting a tittie twister for this", She heard him say through the door.

"You're the one who packed it", She said as she just smiled and walked back into the kitchen.

* * *

Ryan opened the door of the bathroom and walked out into the hallway. He strolled nonchalantly into the kitchen. Kim noticed him entering the kitchen and turned to look at him. On his shirt was a picture of the Energizer Bunny and had the words "Hot Hare Balloon Tour". As he noticed her looking at him he struck a sort of "Ta-da" pose and then mouthed the words "Fuck you" to her. Kim started to laugh which alerted Kat to what was going on other than scrambling eggs.

"Look Kat, I got him to wear pink!"

Ryan glared at her, "Oh please. Its only pink because it has the Energizer Bunny on it and its the only pink shirt I own. Besides the way I earned it was pretty fun. Even you said it was cool."

"Thats not pink Ryan, thats HOT pink."

"Yes yes, I know thank you. I still don't mind wearing it as much as you think I do though. If you wanted to see funny you should have seen the air show after we put this hot air balloon up. We had passes that let us stay and watch the air show for free, so we would go around and see all the cool new aviation toys and stuff like that, but every once in a while you'd see a huge troop of boy scouts go by, all of them wearing their hot pink shirts and big bunny ears."

"I bet that was rather cute looking", Kat said as she stirred the eggs in the pan.

"The back of it says Bunny Crew by the way, and that was a BIG bunny. My mom has a thing for hot air balloons, so when they have the Sun-n-fun Fly In in Tampa, we always drive up and crew, me my brother and my mom.

"Sounds like you and your mum have a good relationship with one another."

Kim looked at her funny, "Are you kidding? She's the biggest kid I've ever seen. Her, Ryan and Cory, that's a recipe for total chaos!"

Ryan gave her a hurt look, "We are not. No chaos, just mischief."

Kim rolled her eyes and changed the subject, "Ok well it looks like our chef for the morning has prepared quite the meal. Grab a chair Ryan and I'll bring you a plate."

He walked towards the table with a smile, "Don't have to tell ME twice. The eggs smell good."

"Now see why I say he reminds me of Rocky, Kat?"

"No he's better than Rocky. Rocky would have tried to eat the eggs out of the pan while I was still cooking them."

Kim thought for a moment, "Yeah, that's probably a good point."

* * *

_Weekends are great. No getting up early. No pesky teenagers around. A real chance to get some work done. Awww crap... I guess I should get up and grade those damn quizzes._

Tommy sat up in bed and swung his legs out over the side. Sitting on the edge of the bed, he rubbed his eyes to help wake himself up more fully.

_You know, quizzes are a pain in the ass. Its fun to terrorize the kids with them, but afterward it just creates more work. _

He put on some clothes and walked out his bedroom door. As he walked by the living room, he turned on his TV for the morning news on his way to the kitchen. He paused to watch for a minute and then began to make breakfast for himself.

_Good, its quiet for now, but knowing Mesogog its not gonna stay that way for long. The bad thing is, I don't think we will be his next target._

* * *

Mesogog growled as he burst into Elsa's lab.

"Elssa! Your time is up, what is your progress?"

Elsa was startled as he burst into the room. She turned to face him nervously.

"The procedure is going well, Master. Your monster will be prepared within the hour. It will be a monster with powers the like of which the Rangers have never seen."

He practically purred with excitement, "Excellent Elsssssa. When you have completed your task, take a battalion of Tyrannodrones and flush the Rangers out. Once they have all arrived we will crush them."

Elsa smiled and nodded, "Yes, Master."

She turned to continue her work as Mesogog left the room. The Rangers were in store for quite a surprise indeed.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Yeah I like the power rangers. Guilty as charged. thats the ONLY charge I'm guilty of. None of this belongs to me, thus I am making no money off anything in this story. Sue me if you want but you won't get much. I'm poor, lol.

* * *

A shrill, piercing alarm sounded in the dark room. Conner rolled over and slapped the top of his alarm clock with an annoyed grunt. _Okay why did I set that thing again? School? No its a Saturday. Oh yeah, I was gonna meet the guys at Hayley's. I suppose I should get up then._

Conner opened his eyes and looked at the clock. _8 O'clock? Screw it. I'm sleeping 15 more minutes._

He rolled over and went back to sleep.

* * *

Conner arrived at the Cyberspace later than expected due to his decision to sleep a little farther into the morning. He received a smile and a nod from Hayley as he walked through the door. She was standing off to the side of the doorway talking with the foreman from the company that was going to be putting in new windows for her.

"Well lookie what the cat dragged in", Ethan said with a smile as he looked up and found Conner walking in the door.

Kira looked up from what she was reading, "Yeah. The cat dragged him in late, too."

"Sorry guys, I kinda decided to roll over and turn off the alarm instead of getting up."

Kira looked at Ethan strangely, "Well at least he's honest."

Conner smiled, "So whats up?"

Kira sighed and patted the seat next to her on the couch which she and Ethan were seated upon. He sat down and then stared at Kira and Ethan, waiting for them to say something.

"Well the main topic so far this morning has been Dr.O's little recruitment job. Did he talk to you about it at all beforehand?", asked Ethan.

"No, but I'm not surprised. He has been looking for a way to keep the upper hand on Mesogog for a while now. He, Trent, Hayley and I have had some long talks about weapons, tactics and various other things lately. He says its to keep up with the increasing power of the monsters we seem to be getting."

"Yeah they have been a little rough lately", said Kira.

"Do you think that's why he did it, Conner?, Ethan asked with a bit of concern on his face.

"Probably. I was going to go ask him this afternoon, but in the meantime we need to get down to why we met here this morning. I totally suck at algebra."

The mood lightened in an instant as Ethan and Kira couldn't help but smile.

* * *

Kim, Kat and Ryan sat at Kim's table enjoying good conversation after breakfast. Kat was telling the two about a few of her recent travels.

"Madagascar? Sweet! I always wondered what kind of stuff lived there", Ryan exclaimed with genuine interest. "What city were you in?"

Kat smiled at Ryan's obvious delight, "I was staying just to the south of a city called Mahajanga. The Betsiboka River empties into Bombetoka Bay. I was studying the sea life in the bay and how its effected by the huge amount of silt thats deposited by it."

"Is it a lot?", Ryan asked.

"Well supposedly that river drops more silt than any other river in the world. So much so, the river is actually a dirty orange color."

"See now why can't I have a cool job like that, Kim?"

Kim smirked and turned to Ryan, "Because you don't have your degree. You have a chance still though, you..."

Ryan cut her off with a finger in the air and a sharp reply, "Careful! Be careful! You are treading dangerous waters, missy. Mom gets away with it because she brought me into this world. You have no such protection!"

Kat laughed at the semi-playful exchange, "A sore subject I see?"

Kim looked at her and pressed her luck, "He got out of the Air Force before he finished his Meteorology degree and his mother constantly hounds him to go back in. I know he regrets it but he would never concede that."

Ryan put his face in his hands in defeat while uttering a muffled reply, "Woman I am so going to kill you."

Kat changed the subject to save Ryan some face, "So what's on the agenda for today?"

Ryan straightened himself and sat back, "Well besides the untimely death of a short woman with a huge mouth, I was thinking maybe we should go see the sights."

"Oh I haven't been to a California beach in years. Lets go to the beach!", Kim said with excitement.

"Kim, Kat works near water all the time. Don't you think she would rather go anywhere but there?"

"Actually, even though I'm at the beach all the time, I rarely get to go and just relax. The beach sounds great to me."

"Two hot chicks in bikinis laying with me on the beach. I'm sold too", Ryan said with a wide grin.

Kim just rolled her eyes, "Pervert."

* * *

Mesogog was in a foul mood as usual. The Rangers and their new friends though, were going about their day as if all was right in the world. Even his three newest thorns in his side were on their way to the beach to relax! He had been quite the angry evil lord as of late. He keeps creating stronger and stronger monsters but his foes had been putting them down by getting stronger and stronger themselves. For every step forward he took it seemed like the Power Rangers took two. The more he thought about it the madder he became. A growl started in his throat as he thought about how the Rangers were constantly beating him. It got even stronger as he thought about how his top warrior was recently side-lined by almost being killed. Finally, when he thought upon how long Elsa was taking with this newest monster the growl in his throat erupted from his mouth as a vicious and enraged roar.

"**ELLLLSSSAAAAA!**"

Mesogog launched his powerful form off of his throne and strode down the corridor towards the henchwoman's laboratory. He flung open the doors with obvious rage and strode in. Elsa whirled around to face him in terrified surprise.

"My lord! I was just about to begin the energization process!"

Mesogog brought his face uncomfortably close to Elsa's, "Then you are done, Elsa?"

She reeled back a bit when he spoke. Elsa's voice quivered a little as she replied, "Yes master! The Umbracite Crystal is in place and ready to serve our purposes!"

Mesogog's mood improved as Elsa kept supplying information that pleased him.

He kept staring at her for a moment. Then cocked his head to the side and slightly lunged his head forward when he spoke as he usually does when he is annoyed, "Then doooo it."

Elsa turned back to the console with trepidation. Her fingers moved swiftly on the console preparing the calculations and double checking the settings. Mesogog's foot began to tap the floor as she walked back over to the chamber and double checked the position of her target and the Umbracite Crystal. She gave him an evil smile as she walked back to the console and placed her hand on the big red button.

"Commencing sequence, My Lord."

Elsa pressed the button and the room was filled with a deep umber glow. It was like someone had switched on a black light and intensified it a million times. It was still a dark and evil light but at the same time it was as blinding as the sun. After a few moments, the glow subsided but all that remained in the target chamber was the same, small, plastic octopus.

Mesogog growled low and turned to Elsa as she spoke to him.

"Patience, Master. The transformation will occur and you will have your most powerful monster ever."

"Remind me again why you chose an octopus, Elsa?"

"You shall see, my lord."

No sooner had the words escaped her lips, the chamber began to glow again and the plastic octopus was transformed into a nine foot tall deep black furry octopus. He had two legs on which to stand and what looked like a human torso, but after that, the similarities to a human ceased. He had eight very long tentacles. The tentacles all came out on the side of his torso, between his shoulder and the top of his abdominals. His head was shaped like the bulbous body sac of an octopus and he had no discernable eyes. Down each furry tentacle and tiger striping his jet black torso were streaks of an evil umber brown color. Mesogog looked from the monster and back to Elsa wearing the most evil grin he could muster.

"Well done, Elsa. I see now why you chose this creature. More than enough arms to take care of the rangers AND their new friends."

"Thank you, master."

Mesogog looked at the creature wistfully as it stepped from the chamber. His tentacles dragged the ground as he walked producing an ominous sound, "He requires a name, Elsa. We need something to call him so that we can celebrate the impending victory in his name."

"Yes, my lord. I was thinking we should call him Octoslaughter."

"Interesting. Yes, Elsa, I believe that will do quite well."

Octoslaughter approached Mesogog and promptly kneeled before him, "What is your command, my master?"

Mesogog snorted, smiled and chuckled with his evil hissing sound, "He knows his place as well. Excellent, he shall make a fine addition to my army. Elsa, the Rangers' new friends are taking a trip to the beach. Take our new friend and some drones. Show them that the only one that will be having a pleasurable day, will be me."

Elsa's evil grin broadened as she received her orders, "With absolute glee, my lord."

* * *

Kat, Ryan and Kimberly rolled into a parking spot at the beach in Kat's jeep. The California sun was was almost halfway to the top of its daily journey by the time they had arrived and there wasn't a single cloud in the sky.

"What a gorgeous day, huh Kim!"

"Girl, you said it. I could get used to this again. I remember when we used to have picnics and play volleyball all the time at the beach with the old gang. Going to the beach always seems to bring back fond memories of days long past."

Ryan who was riding in the back with the cooler jumped off the back and onto the hot pavement, which he immediately regretted.

"OH! OH! HOT! HOT! Pavement bad! Sandals good!", He began to yell as he halfway jumped back into the back seat to retrieve his sandals.

"Way to go, bozo!", Kim laughed. "You should have known the pavement was going to be hot, Florida boy."

Ryan dropped his sandals to the ground to put them on as he replied to her, "Yeah well I forgot. Even though I live in Florida I don't go to the beach a lot. It's just not usually my style."

Kim laughed under her breath, "Well grab the cooler and hand me the food basket and bag of stuff. I need to go pick out my perfect tanning spot."

Ryan leaned into the back and pulled out two tan canvas bags and handed them to Kimberly. He then dove in a second time to get the cooler full of soda. Once the three compatriots were satisfied that they hadn't forgotten anything at the jeep, they began their trek towards the ocean. As the journey began, Kat reached over to one of the bags and tossed her keys in. Kim gave her a questioning look and Kat noticed it.

"These shorts have no pockets. My wallet is in a bag too."

"Ahh", Kimberly said, satisfied with the logical answer.

The three strode towards the ocean in relative silence, taking in the sounds of the ocean and the smell of the air. Ryan had his board shorts on which were navy blue and had bright blue flames coming from the bottom near his knees heading towards the top. He had an old, comfortable, black shirt on whose lettering and graphics had been long washed away by multiple machine washings and as always on top of his head was his favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. hat. The pink shirt he had had on before didn't stay on long once they had decided to go to the beach. Pink in front of friends was one thing, pink in front of anyone else, not so much. Kim had on a pink tank top and white jean shorts. They were cut off just above mid thigh and around both items of clothing could be seen the strings of a blue bikini underneath. Ryan had his eyes on Kat though, and it was all he could do to keep from drooling enough to cause some serious beach erosion. She had on some seriously short pink shorts that hugged every curve of her hips like a sexy sports car hugs the curves of a winding mountain road. The shirt was no better though. From everywhere the shirt ended there were thin pink strings hanging from what Ryan could tell was a pretty skimpy bikini, and even though it was just a plain old white V-neck T-shirt, the whole ensemble sent him wild. The shirt was knotted at the bottom on the left side to make the it tighter and the V was dipped low enough to hug the curves of her chest and expose a bit of her delicious looking...

Ryan looked down immediately and talked to the little man downstairs in his head. _You cut that shit out right now. A semi-tight pair of board shorts at the beach is not the place to be pitching a tent. Behave yourself for gods sake!_

Satisfied that he had calmed himself enough he turned his attention back to the girls, who had started a conversation without him.

"You know Kim, I could have carried a bag. I'm not an invalid."

"Nope. No carrying stuff until that wrist is healed up, it's still in that brace. Ryan and I can handle it, and besides, its not like this stuff is very heavy."

Ryan shot Kim a glare as they both looked over at him, "Yeah Kim, you say that when YOU have the light stuff. How convenient."

All three of them laughed at the irony.

"The only thing I'm worried about is that Mesowhatsits guy poking his nose in where it doesn't belong and wanting some of my lunch."

No sooner was it said, then invisportals opened all around the trio, dropping out a squad of Tyrannodrones and Elsa. This time the irony wasn't so funny.

Kim yelled at Ryan as all three took a defensive stance and dropped what they were carrying to the ground, "You just HAD to open your big fucking mouth and jinx it didn't you, Ryan!"

"Yeah, that's me. Mister Right-on-cue."

The Tyrannodrones all took menacing stances, completely encircled them, and took a few steps forward in preparation to strike. With cliches firing on all cylinders, Elsa predictably chose this moment to issue her ultimatum.

"Hello, Ryan. Hand over the orange Dino Gem and you'll all be free to go. Resist, and we will get it anyway, but I cannot guarantee you'll come out the same as you would by using your first option."

Ryan looked at Elsa and smiled, "So she IS hot."

The two girls reacted in unison and in mutual exasperation.

"Ryan!"

"Ryan!"

He ignored their annoyed tone and continued, "But hot chicks with attitudes are the worst kind of pain in the ass bitches, so no, you can stick your deal straight up your ass."

Elsa was taken aback for a moment but quickly recovered, "Very well then, have fun watching my drones tear apart your friends."

Kim whispered encouragement to her fellow captives, "We have fought them before so we know how they fight and what to expect. Ryan you don't know much about martial arts but you can make up for it with your gem power. Use it sparingly to help you fight, but god help me if you pull that Nova bullshit again I'll wake you up just to knock you the fuck out again."

Ryan smiled and took a defensive stance towards his side of the circle of drones, "Yes, mother."

"Enough talk! Tyrannodrones attack!", Elsa shouted.

The drones reacted swiftly and charged at the trio in the center. Ryan ran through the middle of his small group and noticed immediately that his sandals were going to be a problem when fighting in sand. He kicked them off quickly one at a time as the drones turned around to face him. Using his telekinesis, he sent them hurtling at the heads of the two nearest drones and knocked them both off their feet. _Okay, so they are obviously strong, but it looks like Mesogog cut corners in the brains department. I can do this, I just have to out think them. _Ryan ducked and dodged incoming swipes and even threw a few punches of his own, but seeing as how his entire fighting knowledge all came from watching Chuck Norris, Steven Segal, and Jean-Claude Van Damme movies, he was losing ground pretty quickly and taking a few shots here and there. He needed to do something and fast.

Kimberly reacted quickly as her small group of drones came running at her. She grabbed the nearest one, rolled to her back and threw it using all the strength and momentum she could muster. It flew over Kat's head and down the beach. It would be back but at least she bought herself a few moments with fewer drones. She leapt to her feet and intercepted the next drone with a clothesline. A third drone approached and ate a snap kick to the face for its troubles. The drone reeled back in pain as the fourth and final drone lunged for her. She spun out of the way making the drone over extend himself and then she delivered it a vicious kick to the stomach. Kim stomped on its back as it hit the ground in front of her, then settled back into a defensive stance as the previous drones started coming back for more.

Kat flipped over the top of her drones as they all initially lunged for her. She landed and got her footing in time to whirl around and drop the first incoming drone with a round house. Another drone behind it lunged in with a high jab which Kat ducked under and then came up firing an uppercut to the next drone that would have made Ali stagger. She planted her foot in the sand again and used a back kick to send flying the drone she had ducked before. The next drone came from behind and grabbed her by the shoulders, she thought quicker than the drone though and easily broke the hold. Grabbing the drone by either side of his head, she leapt into the air and drove her right knee directly into its face with enough force to send it flying back several feet. The drone landed on its back and didn't get back up. Kat looked around and saw the first drone coming back for more, as well as Ryan fighting a losing battle a few feet behind where the drone was charging at her, "Ryan are you okay?"

Although talking and cracking jokes while fighting is a practiced art, since Ryan's sarcasm came naturally, so did his fighting banter, "Well seeing as how I'm fighting off four ugly ass mutant bugs instead of laying on a big beach towel in the sun with two beautiful women and trying not to get caught trying to feel one of them up, I'd say I'm doing pretty shitty. But hey could be worse..."

Kat dodged another swipe from a drone and silenced Ryan, "Oh, no you don't. You jinxed this the first time and I am NOT letting you do it again!"

Ryan smiled as he started to get the hang of dodging and blocking the incoming attacks, "Okay, so my luck isn't perfect. Maybe later for GOOD luck I can rub your..."

"Watch it!"

"BACK! I was going to say back!"

Kat rolled her eyes as she sent another drone to its back with a sweep and then planted an axe kick into its chest, "What I meant was, how are you doing against those drones!"

Ryan spun, dodging an incoming drone and cracked the next across the face, "Well okay I suppose, but I just got an idea to put the odds in my favor!"

Ryan knew he wasn't going to win with superior fighting skills so instead he gave himself a reach advantage by propelling a thrust of psychokinetic energy forward with each punch. He didn't even have to actually hit the drone in order to make contact, and even better, the energy hit a LOT harder than he did. With a few well placed blasts all of his drones were down in the sand and wishing Mesogog had medical insurance. He ran over to Kat to help her finish off her last two drones and then they both helped Kim dispatch the last of them. When all the drones were down for the count, they turned to Elsa waiting for the henchwoman to turn tail and run. Unfortunately, they were disappointed.

Everyone around could tell that Kim was very pissed that her beach trip had been interrupted, "Okay psycho goth bitch, you're next."

Elsa laughed, "I would, but that would waste all the time and effort I put into arranging a playmate for you. Have a look."

She pointed behind the three of them and to the waters edge. An ominous dark shadow in the water approached the beach slowly. As it drew closer and closer, a lead weight dropped into the pit of Ryan's stomach. He raised his wristband to his mouth and immediately thought of Tommy.

"Tommy come in!", Ryan exclaimed in a panicked tone.

_"Ryan? What is it? What's wrong?"_

"The three of us are at the beach, Elsa is here too, and it looks like something is going to try to come out of the water and eat us!"

_"I'm on my way! I'm bringing everyone!"_

"Oh that's good", Ryan said with slight sarcasm. "I have a feeling we are gonna need all the help we can get."

The shadow began to emerge from the California surf with its head poking out of the waves. He approached closer and closer. By the time Octoslaughter had fully emerged from the ocean, Ryan had run out of new cuss words to exclaim in his head. Its tentacles waved menacingly back and forth in the air around it as it slowly but purposefully strode up the beach towards them.

"Ummm Kim? What the fuck is that thing?"

"How am I supposed to know Ryan?"

"Well you are the one thats done this sort of thing before! Don't you know!"

Kim could tell that Ryan was scared, that's why he was getting mad at her. She and Kat were scared, too. However, scared didn't mean cowardice, least of all for Kim.

"No I don't know, Ryan! All these damned bad guys have their own monsters and henchmen! I'm thinking we need to just get the hell out of here and sort it out later!"

"Sounds like a plan! Hightail it ladies, I'll be right behind you!"

Kat seemed to read Kim's mind, "Ryan you had better be! No exploding dammit!"

"I wont! Go! NOW!"

Elsa was still grinning, "Oh, no you don't! Octoslaughter! GET THEM!"

Octoslaughter, in the span of one stride, was instantly in front of both women, so fast that Ryan was looking directly at him and still didn't see it happen. The ladies shrieked in terror as it surprised them and then picked them both up with its massive tentacles.

"NOOOOOO!", Ryan screamed.

Elsa snapped her fingers and Octoslaughter disappeared into an invisportal leaving Ryan on the beach all alone with her.

"If you wish to see your friends again contact me with this and give up your Dino Gem. If you don't, you may never see them again", She threw a small device at Ryan's feet.

"You hurt them bitch, and I'll make hell look like a fucking field trip to Disney World."

Elsa just laughed as she knew she had the upper hand, "Amusing Ryan, but you can't back that up as long as they are my Master's prisoners, besides we have so many things that are more amusing than pain. Farewell."

As soon as he realized she was going to disappear too, he tried to lunge for her. She was too far from him for him to tackle her, grab her, or follow her through the portal, so he grabbed for her telekinetically, but he wasn't quick enough and she disappeared in a bright green flash of portal energy. As she disappeared the rangers showed up on their vehicles, and they were not happy.

"SHIT! She just disappeared Dr. O. We got here too late."

"It could very well be worse than that", Tommy said as he and the others dismounted. "I don't see Kim or Kat anywhere."

Kira looked down the beach a bit farther and spotted Ryan kneeling in the sand with his back slumped forward, "LOOK! It's Ryan!"

Kira took off at a blistering pace and easily reached him ahead of everyone else. Once she got to him she saw he was cradling a small device in his hands which were in his lap.

"Ryan! What happened! Are you okay? Where are Kim and Kat!"

The barely audible reply came from pale lips covered in snot, blood and tears, "It's all my fault, Kira. She wants the gem. I wasn't fast enough. I just froze."

Kira leaned back for a second in the kneeling position she was currently in. She put it all together very quickly from the state Ryan was in, what he had just said, and what they had seen when they arrived. She gently pulled Ryan into a hug and all that could be heard when the other Rangers arrived were heavy sobs into Kira's Ranger uniform. They could all feel the immense anger radiating from him like a furnace.

Tommy motioned as if he was going to begin to speak to Ryan but Kira waved him off to tell him she had figured it out already and it was better to let Ryan be for a moment.

Tommy instead turned to the other Rangers, "Okay well, Kira seems to be on top of things here. Trent, contact Hayley and let her know we are incoming with just one, and have her start scanning to see if we can find Kat and Kim. Conner and Ethan take that beach stuff and gather it up. Put it in the back of Kat's jeep over in the parking lot. I'm going to de-morph and drive it back to my house with Ryan and Kira. After that, get back to base as quickly as possible, it looks like Mesogog has the two of them and we need to get moving as quickly as possible. Questions later, action now. Go."

The white, red, and blue Dino Rangers nodded in unison and set about their tasks with haste. Tommy turned back to Ryan and Kira and knelt beside them both. He put a hand on Kira's back and she turned her helmet towards him.

"Did you hear all that?"

Kira nodded.

"Good. De-morph and lets get him to Kat's jeep."

* * *

The ride back to Tommy's house was deathly silent. Ryan sat in the front seat, back fully against the seat, hat in his lap, his hair blowing in the wind, and head slumped forward. Kira sat in the back on Ryan's side with both hands on his shoulders trying to comfort him. Ryan had his left hand clasping Kira's on his left shoulder and both of the other vehicle's occupants could tell he was still seriously pissed. The tears had stopped, but the anger, sorrow and disappointment remained. The trip was excruciatingly long and painfully short all at the same time. Tommy pulled into his driveway to see Trent, Conner, and Ethan waiting on his front porch for their arrival. Tommy put the jeep into park and shut off the engine, but before he could get out, Ryan's left arm shot out to his chest and smacked him back into the seat.

"Teach me."

"Teach you what, Ryan?"

Ryan turned his head to look Tommy in the eyes. Tommy could see the pain and the fury in Ryan's bloodshot eyes.

"They took people I care about. Teach me how to take them back."

Tommy sighed, "Alright Ryan. First though, lets get you inside and cleaned up."

"No. Now."

Tommy had looked away to get out of the jeep but looked back when Ryan didn't remove his arm from his chest. He looked back into Ryan's eyes and saw more. Along with the fury and pain he now saw them pleading to him for help. Ryan wanted revenge and he wanted Tommy's help to do it.

"No Ryan. Not now. Firstly, you are cut up and bloodied pretty good, secondly, you are not thinking straight and are liable to take my head off, and thirdly, martial arts can only be taught when the student is calm and focused. So no, I will not teach you now. You will go into the house with us, get cleaned up, help us find Kim and Kat, and formulate a plan. After a good nights sleep tonight, I will get up with you at first light and we will begin your training."

Ryan continued to stare at Tommy with that same fury. Kira just sat there with her hands still on Ryan's shoulders watching the battle of wills continue. After a few moments Ryan's expression softened, and his head slumped along with his grip on Tommy's chest. Tommy got down from the jeep without a word and went around to help Ryan out. Kira jumped out of the jeep herself and got on the other side of Ryan to help him inside. After a few steps Ryan held his hands up into the air to shrug off his two crutches.

"I am not broken. Lets just go."

Ryan led the way inside with Tommy and Kira trailing. He strode past the three teenagers on the front porch purposefully and walked inside the house. Ryan was the first into the basement with the five Rangers directly behind him. Hayley was already in the basement at the computer, searching for any sign of Kim and Kat.

"Do you have any sign of them yet, Hayley?", Ryan asked.

She turned in her chair to face him, "Not yet, but I don't have a lot to go on. First, tell us what happened, and don't leave out any small details, they might be important."

* * *

Octoslaughter walked down the halls of Mesogog's lair with his captives still entwined in his tentacles. They had been kicking and screaming, but once he wrapped his tentacles in the right places they ceased to do either. He came to one of his Master's jail cells and a Tyrannodrone opened the door ahead of him. He threw both of his prisoners through the door roughly and watched them slide across the floor to a stop.

Kim was immediately up on her feet and Kat took a few seconds longer.

"So whats your plans now Octofucktard?", Kim asked, the question dripping with hate.

Octoslaughter did not respond but simply left the doorway to reveal Elsa behind him.

Elsa's evil grin made the dark dungeon cell seem even colder than it already was, "You are my Master's prisoners now. You are being ransomed for Ryan's orange Dino Gem. We plan on torturing you for information in the meantime, and if he does not give us what we want, we have other fun activities to explore."

It was Kat's turn for sarcasm, "Oh good, I hate it when I get a bad cruise director."

Elsa kept her grin wide as she closed the heavy steel door. It closed with a loud clank and the bang of the lock on the door shutting may as well have been a gunshot to the heart.

"Well Kat, you may as well have a seat. It looks like we are spending the night."

* * *

Elsa strode into Mesogog's lair with her head held high and brimming with confidence. She knelt in front of his throne and waited to be acknowledged.

"Elsa you have returned, and I hear you have brought guests. Explain."

Elsa smiled and rose to her feet, "Well, my Lord, I took a bit of initiative and formulated a plan to get you what you desire. Ryan has the orange dino gem, and now we have two of the people he cares about most. Before I left him helpless on the beach, I offered him an exchange, and now the rest is up to him.

"So, you offered him his friends in return for his dino gem?"

She puffed out her chest with pride as she replied, "Yes."

Mesogog got up from his throne and slowly walked up to Elsa, "Normally, I would be angered at any minion of mine taking action into their own hands and ignoring my orders. However, you have delivered me a valuable prize. Well done, Elsa"

"Thank you, master."

* * *

"Thats all I can remember."

Tommy sat thinking in his chair across from Ryan, whom had just finished the story of what happened on the beach that morning. Tommy brought the device Elsa had given Ryan up to his face to examine it.

"Well it doesn't look like its a tracking device per se, but it's definitely a communication device. She wanted you to contact her to surrender your gem?"

"That's what she said."

"Hmm", Tommy mumbled as he thought a bit more. "Well that really does us no good while Kim and Kat are still prisoners of Mesogog. We could use it as a trap to lure Elsa out, but they would still have them, and obviously we can't let Mesogog actually get the gem because then the entire planet would be in danger."

"That's what I thought too, Tommy. Not to mention the fact that they are the bad guys, they probably will renig on their part to free them or worse kill them, whether I give Elsa the gem or not."

Tommy nodded, "Yeah, Ryan. The more bad guys change, the more they stay the same."

A few more moments of silence followed before Ryan got up and walked behind Hayley, "Anything yet?"

Hayley looked up at Ryan over her shoulder, "Unfortunately no, seems like I can't see a damn thing going on anywhere near Mesogog's fortress right now. Its like a blanket of static all over the place."

Ryan nodded, "Well the thing was fashioned off of an octopus that much is obvious, maybe one of his powers is being able to mask himself and anything around him, like ink."

"Yeah thats probably the case", She sighed. "On a good note though, I did get some data from when you fought with him at the beach. It looks like when he moved to grab Kim and Kat he couldn't keep all of his powers going at once. His ink shields dropped long enough for me to get a look at what this monster is capable of and what powers him."

Tommy got up from his chair and joined Ryan at the back of where Hayley was seated, "What have you got?"

"I analyzed the energy readings that the monster was giving off and it matched an energy signature that you have saved in the data base here. Have you ever heard of something called the Umbracite Crystal?"

Tommy swallowed nervously, "Ummm, yes actually. Anton and I found it on one of our excavations. I know he had it at one point but soon after we found it, it disappeared. I trusted him so I didn't give it a second thought. After I found out Anton was also Mesogog though, I figured that he had it still. I was wondering when he would finally use it. It's a crystal of immense power. Almost as powerful as the Zeo Crystal."

This made Hayley turn around in her chair quickly, "Woah, you mean THE Zeo Crystal? the one that powered both the Zeo team AND the Turbo team?"

"That's the one."

Hayley sat there for a moment, dumbfounded, "Holy shit."

"What? How bad is that?", Ryan asked.

Hayley explained, "Well normal monsters are just a bit more powerful than a Ranger. Thats why a single Ranger usually will get the snot kicked out of them, but as soon as you team up on it, the monster goes down pretty easy. The Umbracite Crystal is pure evil, and if its as powerful as Tommy says, then this could mean big trouble. The Zeo Crystal powered the Zeo Rangers, and then was slightly modified by Tommy's former teammate Billy Cranston to power the even more powerful, Turbo Rangers. This means that this monster could be as powerful as three or even four Rangers."

Ryan turned to Tommy, "Then it looks like you have your work cut out for you, Tommy, because I plan on taking out that son of a bitch personally."

Tommy allowed himself a small grin, "Well that may be so but first we need to formulate a plan and go from there. We will start on that while you go get cleaned up. Use my bathroom upstairs and you are welcome to anything you need. Mi casa is su casa."

Ryan nodded and then clapped Tommy on the shoulder. He then walked over to Kira, hugged her and gave her a kiss on the cheek, "Thank you."

"No problem, Ryan."

Ryan released her and slowly trudged up the stairs. Tommy waited until he was out of sight to continue.

"For now, this is just a waiting game. We wait to see what develops, and we go from there. They have Kim and Kat, and we know that they are prisoners in Mesogog's fortress, but we can't go in there blind. Seeing as how the sensors are being masked by something we are going to have to do reconnaissance the old fashioned way. Trent, you know the ins and outs of his fortress better than anyone plus your gem power is camouflage. I want you to sneak in and try to find out where exactly they are being held. If you have ANY inkling that they know you are there or if the security is too tight, I want you to get out immediately, we do not need a third prisoner in there but we need some information about what is going on."

Trent stayed silent but nodded his acknowledgment with a determined look on his face.

"Conner, Kira and Ethan, unfortunately there is not much for you to do at the moment. Stick around and be ready to go at a moments notice, but I know you were doing some studying for school, so please go back to that. I have the unenviable task of teaching martial arts to someone who is very angry, tomorrow morning."

The three primary Rangers nodded and left to go upstairs while Trent got ready to embark on a mission to the enemy stronghold. Tommy turned to Hayley once again and asked for an update, "Anything?"

"No Tommy, and if Ryan's hypothesis is correct we probably won't. I'm going to finish my analysis of the data I recorded during the fight at the beach and more importantly, read up a bit more on the Umbracite Crystal to see if there is anything more we should be aware of."

Tommy nodded, "Okay, I'll go upstairs and get you some lunch if you are going to be a while down here."

"Yeah thanks."

* * *

Kim sat in one corner of the cell with her forearms propped straight out on top of her knees. Kat was cross legged on the floor beside her. The cell was quite spartan, with no bench or bed, but at least it wasn't very dirty. The only window in the cell was at the top of the door and had vertical bars like a typical jail door. The only light in the room came in from that very window and shown into the back corner opposite from where the girls were seated. Kim didn't know what time it was but she knew one thing for sure, it was cold in here, and it was only getting colder.

"I knew I should have worn my damn jeans."

"Hindsight is twenty-twenty, Kim. Its not like you could have predicted we would get captured by the bad guys today, let alone stuck in a dark, cold dungeon cell."

"True, one thing is for sure though, this place is a lot cleaner than Rita's cells ever were."

Kat laughed, "Yeah thats for sure. Those cells were horrible."

Kim became abruptly sober, "I just don't know how we are going to get out of this. We are so deep in this fortress its unbelievable. Even Rita didn't have one this big."

Kat moved closer and hugged her friend, "Has Tommy or Ryan ever let you down before? They will find a way to get us out, I have faith in them. I also have faith in you, you won't let a small thing like this get to you, you are too damned strong."

Kim wiped a solitary tear from her eye before replying, "Thanks, Kat. We should probably huddle together for warmth and try to get some sleep. Something tells me they aren't going to leave us alone forever."

"Okay, Kim."

They embraced each other as tightly as they could. Neither of them had much clothing for warmth but sharing body heat would help. As they fell asleep neither heard the faint voice that whispered encouragement to them.

_You will get through this and become the stronger for it. Sleep well my little cranes._

* * *

Ryan was still pissed off. He stood naked under the warm spray of the shower. Blood, sweat, tears, and sand all washed away with ease, but the pain and the anger remained. He couldn't help but think that he should have acted faster, done more to prevent their capture. The pain was easy to bear. He had had a painful life thus far as it was. Sure there are people in the world that had been subjected to far worse than he, but the pain of always being the butt of the jokes in school tends to wear a person down after a while. He was always a little smaller than everyone else. He had his own crowd of friends, but to everyone else he was the little geek who didn't fit in. The guy that all the girls would look at and laugh as if he was some kind of pathetic ugly animal. Some of that had changed, but the memory of the pain would never fade. This was a new pain, just as hard to bear but manageable. The difficult thing to bear was the anger. Ryan considered himself a forgiving person and rarely got mad at anything, but the minute you slight him on purpose and send him over the edge, he is not someone you would want to mess with. The anger wasn't so much the problem as much as what the target of his anger was. Him. He was furious with himself that he hadn't done more. He was seething at the fact that he hadn't acted quicker and prevented this mess from occurring. The rage burned into his soul, and he was determined to put it out with the utter defeat of his enemies.

Ryan turned off the water shortly after he had finished. He stepped out of the shower slowly and grabbed a towel from the rack behind him to dry his face. The mirror was slightly fogged up so he wiped it with his towel to look himself in the eyes.

"I will rescue them both, if its the last thing I do."

* * *

"Oh yay, another patrol", Trent mumbled silently.

He activated his gem's power and blended in perfectly with the wall of the semi-dark hallway. Two Tyrannodrones rounded the corner, passed him by without even a flinch, and continued on down the hall and through a doorway. Trent deactivated the power and continued creeping along as silently as he could. He had been at this for three and a half hours now. He had been checking in with Dr. O every fifteen minutes between requests for radio silence to let him know that he was still on the job and not captured. Ever since he had joined the Rangers, he had been working hard to gain this level of trust. The level of trust that makes you feel like your friends have the utmost confidence in your abilities and your loyalty. By now the day was beginning to fade into the evening hours and it had been a very long, emotional day for all of the Rangers. Trent was beginning to feel some of the strain, to feel the wall of fatigue trying to box him in.

"No", He whispered. "I've come this far and I'm not going to fail my friends now. They are all counting on me so that we can save our new friends. I worked so hard to gain their trust and I'm not quitting now."

Trent stopped himself after that. He figured that talking to himself all alone in the corridor of an evil stronghold was crazy enough without risking them knowing that he was here. It was a good thing that he could hear the drones coming long before he could see them. Their boots on the floor made a distinctive clop that echoed very nicely. Since he entered the invisiportal that Hayley had located, he had been listening intently for those noises. He had avoided detection thus far and was working his way into the final area that he needed to search. As he approached the dungeon area, he heard a few sounds. He activated his power again and camouflaged himself against the wall. The sound didn't get closer however, whatever it was, it was holding its position. Trent looked at his surroundings and realized that he was closer to the dungeon than he thought, he was hearing voices. The voices of Kimberly and Katherine were muffled and definitely coming from inside. He inched forward and rounded the corner. The sight that he saw before him wasn't very promising, on each side of one of the cell doors there were two Tyrannodrones, making a total of four. While four Tyrannodrones weren't much of a threat, they could easily alert the entire fortress and that could turn into a very big mess.

Trent stepped back around the corner and put his back up against it. At least he had accomplished his mission, he had found where Kat and Kim were being held. Time to go and tell everyone the good news.

* * *

Ryan paced the floor as afternoon turned to evening. The sun was setting and still they were no closer to finding any sign of the girls. Tommy looked concerned as he had not gotten a check in from Trent in a while. Hayley was still doing work on completing the Orange Ranger powers and also analyzing the data she had gathered on Octoslaughter.

She looked up at Tommy from where she was seated, "Do you think he got caught?"

Tommy shook his head, "I think he's late because he found something and he is checking it out thoroughly before he reports back in."

Ryan nodded at Hayley, "Yeah or he is just working his way around a heavy patrol so he can update us without being caught."

Tommy sighed and leaned back against the pillar he was standing in front of, "All three are possibilities but I think mine or Ryan's are far more likely. Trent is way too good for that."

A sigh of relief was heard from all three in the room as Tommy's communicator activated.

_"Tommy? Do you read?"_

"Loud and clear. Whats your status?"

_"I found where they are being kept. I'm on my way back to show you on the schematics and formulate a plan to get them out."_

"Excellent job Trent! Get back here on the double!", Tommy exclaimed.

_"You bet. Trent out."_

Tommy sighed another sigh of relief, at least something was going their way today.

"So do we go tonight?"

Tommy shook his head, "No, Ryan. We wait until the morning so that everyone has had a chance to sleep and be fresh in the morning. Also it will give them time to relax and let their defenses down and make it easier for us."

Ryan nodded silently.

"Well in the meantime, come take a look at this guys", Hayley interjected.

Ryan got up and joined Tommy at the back of Hayley's computer chair and stared at the screen, it was a recorded scene from earlier when the girls had been taken.

"Haven't we seen this already Hayley?", Ryan asked.

"Yes, but look at this."

Hayley activated the recording once again but this time it was in slow motion. It was slowed to about one sixteenth its normal speed, allowing them to see every detail of every action.

"I don't see anything Hayley", Tommy said.

"Patience Doctor Oliver, Patience."

All three watched the screen intently. As Elsa gave the command for Octoslaughter to capture the girls, he began to move quicker. He took a few short steps and then accelerated to a speed that was quite fast even for one sixteenth speed. They continued watching and were shocked by what they saw next. Upon approaching the girls, not only was the monster moving at a very quick pace, but his arms also reached out for them, and extended to more than four times as long as they were normally.

Ryan reacted somberly, "Oh man, so not only is he quick but he has a super long reach too. This is supremely not good."

Tommy looked worried, but not overly so, "We have fought monsters with an extreme reach before Ryan. We fought them and defeated them. This isn't something we haven't seen before and so while it's something to worry about, it's not a fate sealer."

"Well it may not worry you, but it sure does me."

The conversation was brought to an end as the basement door to the outside opened and in walked Trent. He was a bit dirty from being in the dungeon, but the best thing that he was wearing, was a huge smile.

Tommy hurried over to congratulate him, "Way to go man. I had no idea how we were going to do this without knowing where they were in there."

Trent smiled at him, "Well I wouldn't count your chickens yet. Bring up a schematic and I'll show you what I mean."

Hayley punched a few buttons and brought up a schematic of Mesogog's fortress as all three men walked over to her computer. Trent studied the layout to get his bearings of how he entered and where. When he found his place he began to speak.

He pointed to a place in the lower right of the rectangular layout, "Okay, the invisiportal I used drops in right here. It's not a bad place to start from but there are far better ones, unfortunately we don't have time to scout the city to find one. There are three dungeons in the fortress and one area with just bars thats more like a human jail. The first dungeon is on the same floor as the portal, but they aren't there. There is one near the top and one in the basement. The jail area is near the throne room."

Ryan sighed, "That's because bad guys love to gloat. The fact that they are in a dungeon far from the throne makes it easier but also makes it even more imperative that we get them out soon. They are probably going to be tortured."

Tommy had no choice but to come to the same conclusion, "Sounds about right. I was in Rita's castle on the moon enough to know that the bad dungeons and the torture room were both in the basement. The cells she usually kept captured Rangers in were up top near the throne."

Trent continued, "Right, so here's how this is going to work. The dungeon they are in, sad to say, is the basement one. The route gets a bit long and twisty, but we should make good time. The problem is, we know where they are NOW, but he may move them depending on what he wants to do to them. The longer we wait the more of a chance that he has moved them. If when we go to rescue them, they aren't there, we will have to go searching again, but this time Mesogog will know we are there."

Ryan's face took on a sour look, "So the cavalry will get called in and we will have to fight off god knows how many drones, let alone Octoslaughter and Elsa."

"Yeah, that would definitely be bad", Tommy added.

Hayley wore a worried look as she chimed in, "So we either go in tired, knowing where they are, or we go in rested and take the chance that they have been moved. Not an easy decision."

The group of four were entirely silent for a few minutes, thinking upon what they should do. After a few moments, Tommy looked up at Ryan but did not speak.

Ryan put a hand on Tommy's shoulder, "You are the one with experience in this situation, whatever you decide to do, we will back you up no matter what."

Tommy nodded and spoke, "I think there is a third option here. We will get some rest, and Tomorrow morning Trent can go again and double check their location. This way we are rested and know exactly what the situation is."

"No problem Dr. O. I can find them even quicker the second time around", Trent said confidently.

"Okay its decided then. Lets all get some sleep and hope for some luck tomorrow. Hayley set the computer to beep our communicators if anything happens overnight."

"Okay, Tommy", she replied and then she turned to work on the computer.

* * *

Kim awoke with a start. She was confused for a moment in the darkness. A pitch black room, sleeping on a hard floor and a warm body cuddled to her. Was it Tommy? Was it Ryan? No, neither. The form seemed feminine. Oh wait, Kat. The dungeon, the capture, the monster, it all came back to her in a flash. Between the startle of Kim awakening and the subtle prodding by her, Kat was awake soon as well.

"Thanks for waking me Kim, I was having a good dream."

Kim smiled in the darkness, "Sorry Kat, I didn't mean to. What was the dream about?"

"Well lets put it this way, I wasn't in a dungeon."

"So yeah, a good dream. One I wouldn't mind having come true."

_So free yourselves, my younglings._

Kim paused for a moment as did Kat. Neither said anything or even moved for a moment.

"Did you hear that?"

"Yeah, you too?"

"What was that Kim?"

"I don't know."

_It was I, little ones. Your guardian. Well, Katherine's adopted guardian, but your guardian all the same._

Another moment of silence passed as the two girls looked at each other, barely able to make out each other's silhouette in the darkness.

"Who are you?"

_Well I would hope you know your own guardian Kimberly, or has it been too long? Here, I shall show you._

The girls were amazed to see the image of a pink crane illuminate in the corner opposite from them. The crane smiled warmly at them and then vanished once again.

_Believe me now, my child?_

Kat and Kim smiled at each other in the darkness.

"Oh this is good Kim. She can help us escape."

_No, I cannot._

"What? Why not?"

_It is not within my power._

"So why have you come?"

_To help you help yourselves. I cannot help you escape your prison. However all the power you require to do so, you already possess._

"What?", Kat said. "I thought the Ninjetti powers were destroyed when the Command Center was blown up."

_Your Ranger powers were destroyed, yes. However, your Ninjetti powers reside within yourselves, and thus cannot ever be taken from you._

Kim placed a hand on Kat's shoulder, "I think I know what she means. Watch this."

Kim stood and backed a few feet away from where Kat was seated.

"NINJA RANGER POWER NOW!", Kim shouted. She swept her hand in an arc and a pink ball of light followed her hand. She formed the Ninjetti symbol with her arms outstretched in front of her and was transformed into her Ninjetti uniform in a burst of pink light.

"Excellent!", Kat exclaimed.

"Yeah I didn't know I could still do this. Now its your turn Kat."

Kat formed the same stance that Kim had previously, performed all the arm movements and then herself transformed in a splash of pink light.

"Awesome! This will definitely help us get out of here Kat. Now we just have to figure out how to go about it."

"It's all thanks to your guardian spirit that we thought to do it though."

_Your escape is thanks enough. Use your renewed powers to help your friends, and may the power protect you._

"Okay, Kim, so whats our plan of escape?"

"Well remember how we used to hide behind small trees and blend into our surroundings with these powers? I think we ought to hide in the corners and then when they open the doors they will think we escaped. Hopefully, they won't care about closing the door because they will think we are gone and we will just walk out of here."

"Sounds like a plan. What do we do for now?"

Kim grabbed the front of her gi and threw it, as is the typical de-morph from Ninjetti mode, "For now we wait. Mesogog still has a human side so its safe to say that he still needs sleep. I would expect them to come for us in the morning."

Kat threw her gi the same as Kim had, "Good, I'm going to try and get a couple more hours of sleep then."

* * *

Trent awoke gently as the first light of morning shone in the window and on his face. He looked around and noticed there wasn't anyone awake yet. He heard a sound downstairs in the basement. Perhaps he wasn't the first one awake after all. After taking care of some "first thing in the morning personal needs", he decided he was going to go down there and say hello.

* * *

Ryan and Tommy were indeed already awake. They were down in the basement going over some last minute preparations and making sure Ryan was ready for a little training this morning.

"Everything looks the same as it did last night, Ryan. We still can't get any reading from inside Mesogog's compound like we usually can. We are going to have to send Trent in again."

Ryan nodded at him, "Alright, I'll go see if he's up."

"No need", Came the reply from the stairwell. Trent was coming down the staircase with an apple in hand.

"So when do I go, Dr. O?"

"As soon as you finish that apple. The sooner we can get you in there to reconfirm their location the better. When you leave I'm going to call up the other Rangers and get them here to prepare."

Ryan grabbed Trent's attention with a few words, "Remember Trent, your father is a businessman and an archaeologist, he is probably awake already at this time of day. He might not be there, but that means he could show up at a moments notice."

"Yeah he is an early bird. I thought about that already."

Tommy nodded with satisfaction, "Okay then, get suited up and good luck."

Ryan stuck his hand out for Trent's apple core and then stepped back a few feet from him.

Trent called forth his morpher and then gave the familiar call, "White Ranger, Dino Power!"

The morphing sequence completed and before them stood the White Dino Ranger.

"Okay Trent, get in, locate them and then get out. No heroics alone, it'll get really nasty once they realize you are there."

Trent nodded at him. The back door opened and Trent ran out the door and up the ramp. Ryan and Tommy watched the door close behind him, then Tommy turned to him.

"Well, seeing as how that part of the mission is underway, how about we call up everyone else and get the rest of the plan going. Then I can teach you a few quick things that these drones do that you can easily defend against."

"Sounds good. Lead the way", Ryan gestured up the stairwell.

They exited the house and walked into Tommy's front yard. The sky was a clear blue, unlike Ryan's mood. They stopped once Tommy had deemed that they were far enough away from the house.

"Before we get started Tommy, there's one thing I'd like to ask you."

"Sure, go ahead."

Ryan rolled his neck and began stretching out his muscles, "You still have feelings for Kim, right?"

Tommy did some stretching of his own as he answered, "Yes. It's a bit different than what we had between each other before, but the attraction and connection is still there."

"So how can you be so calm when she is in danger like this? Doesn't it scare the hell out of you?"

Tommy stopped stretching and walked over to Ryan, "Well there's a couple reasons why I don't"

Ryan nodded for him to continue.

"Firstly, I make sure to remember that even though they are women, they were also Power Rangers, just like me. They have had to defend themselves in combat alongside me for years. Sure, I occasionally saved them from harm, but they had their fair share of pulling my ass out of the fire, too. Secondly, its not the first time one of the bad guys have kidnaped a Ranger or former Ranger. They do it all the time. I don't like them being there any more than you do, but getting upset about it only makes it more difficult to formulate a plan to get them out of there. You just don't think straight when emotions get involved."

"That's why you didn't want me training and sparring with you while I was so pissed off."

Tommy nodded, "Exactly. Your intentions and motivation were good, but your emotions were way out of balance." Tommy placed a hand on his shoulder, "We will get them back, safe and sound, one way or another. Now then, finish stretching out and we will get started."

* * *

Kira rounded the corner, heading down the street toward Dr. Oliver's house. She had picked Conner and Ethan up from their houses a few minutes before. They had all expected to get the call to go in the morning so they were prepared, but the air between them before this fight was different. True, them being a bit older, more mature, and more experienced as Rangers had helped, but there was an air of determination and calm ferocity that she hadn't experienced from them before.

"Are you guys okay?"

Conner turned his head toward her from the passenger seat, and Ethan answered from the back seat, "What do you mean, Kira?"

"I don't know. You guys are usually not this... quiet before a big fight like this."

Conner spoke up, "Well this monster is really tough. I know we always say that and that the monsters ALWAYS get tougher, but this is the biggest challenge we have faced yet. Honestly, I think it will be the biggest challenge we ever face except for ol' dino breath."

Kira cracked a smile, "Well I guess so, it was just making be a bit ancy to see the both of you so calm."

"I can go on and on about my new video game I got if you want. See its got this awesome..."

"ETHAN! I think its okay. We can do without the G4 review alright?", Conner chided.

Kira just laughed as she pulled into Dr. Oliver's driveway. This might be a tough fight, and they may be a bit worried about it, but everything was still right with the world.

"Is that Ryan sparring with Dr. O?", Ethan asked.

Conner answered, "Sure looks like it, lets go see whats up."

Kira parked her car and all three Rangers got out. They walked casually over to where Ryan and Dr. O were sparring.

* * *

"There you go Ryan. Now when they come at you with their arms up high like this, just grab an arm and hip throw them", Tommy said.

"Okay charge at me like that. I want to see if I have this right."

Tommy charged at Ryan full speed with his hands up high in the air. Tyrannodrones sometimes would charge like that for fear effect and Tommy wanted Ryan to be able to have a great defense for it. Ryan grabbed one of Tommy's arms, turned his back to him and hip threw Tommy over his right shoulder. Ryan threw him with just enough force to get him up and over so that Tommy landed on his feet after being flipped.

"Excellent Ryan, couple things though. First, when you have a drone don't worry about hurting it, thats the point. When you get it into that position, crank his arm and throw it like you want it to go a mile. That much though, I think you understand anyway."

Ryan smiled and nodded.

"Second, when you grab them by the wrist really tuck that hand in to your chest, it will give you more leverage and reduce the chance that its hand will slip out. Be careful where you put it though, most of the drones have a long claw instead of a hand and you don't want to stab yourself with it."

"Yeah those things are pretty nasty looking."

Both men nodded at each other as Conner, Kira and Ethan walked up to them.

"Hey there Dr. O, teaching Ryan the finer points of kicking the crap out of a Tyrannodrone?"

"As a matter of fact Conner, yes. He doesn't know much martial arts so I figured a few pointers would help if he ever got into the situation of having to defend against them again."

Kira smiled, "So how is he doing? Quick study?"

Tommy laughed, "Well I'd be lying if I said he was the quickest student I've ever had, but he is definitely one of the most determined. Add to that, the fact that he already has pretty good rhythm, and yes he is learning pretty quickly."

Ryan made a weird face at Tommy, "Good rhythm? I have to say that that is the first time I've ever been accused of that. I tend to keep my white ass off the dance floor."

Then entire group couldn't help but have a bit of a laugh at Ryan's expense. As the laughter died, Kira brought the group back into focus.

"So Dr.O, you sent Trent in for recon this morning?"

He nodded, "Yes Kira, he's only been gone about fifteen minutes though. He should be approaching the entrance to Mesogog's lair any time now and be starting his check-ins to us."

Just then, Tommy's communicator went off.

"Speak of the devil. Go ahead Trent."

_"I'm entering the portal to his lair now. Next check-in in ten minutes."_

"Roger that, good luck and keep your eyes open for anything."

_"Understood, radio silence, Trent out."_

Tommy lowered his arm and sighed, "Now we wait."

"Well, while we wait", Ethan interjected. "Maybe we can all give Ryan some tips on dealing with the drones that we have picked up since we began this little adventure?"

Tommy nodded, "That's a great idea, Ethan. You three show him a few things and I'll go inside and get an update from Hayley."

"Sure thing Dr. O", Conner smiled. "Now then where shall we start?"

Tommy turned towards his house, confidant that his pupils had everything well in hand as far as Ryan's impromptu training was concerned.

* * *

Trent lowered his wrist and cut off communications with Tommy. Last time he was here, they had been in the last place he looked. This time around, he was going to start at the bottom and work his way up. The trip down from where he had portaled in was relatively uneventful. A few patrols and a couple check-in's later, and he was beginning to approach the dungeon. The patrols were annoying and forced him to stop his progress when they came by, but it was going quicker then last time. Suddenly he heard noises behind him, there was a patrol approaching. He sighed and activated his camouflage. _Wait a second, those aren't Tyrannodrone boots. It sounds like someone is dragging wire brushes on the floor. The dungeon is just around that corner up ahead and that's probably where that sound is headed. I'd better hide. _Trent looked around and saw a corridor split in the opposite direction of the dungeon. He hurried around the corner and peered back into the hallway he had come from. He only had to wait a few moments before two figures came around the corner. The only light in the hallway came from behind them so all he could see were two dark silhouettes approaching, one large and masculine following a smaller feminine one. It didn't take a genius to figure out who they were. As Elsa and Octoslaughter approached the offshoot corridor, Trent moved back and made sure he stayed out of sight even though he still had his camouflage activated.

Octoslaughter abruptly and without warning stopped at the end of Trent's hallway.

"Mistress?"

"What is it?"

"Something is not right. I get the feeling that someone is watching us, someone who does not belong here."

Elsa grinned evilly, "Awww, is the big bad Octo-pussy getting the heebie-jeebies?"

Octoslaughter remained emotionless, "No mistress, but I am still certain someone is here."

Elsa's smile disappeared, "Ignore it, we have work to do."

As they walked on, and away from his location, Trent exhaled a breath he didn't realize he had been holding. He crept up to the intersection and looked down at their retreating forms. _Well that was close, but now its time to make sure Kat and Kim are really in there. In fact, I bet thats where they are headed._ Trent inched his way down the corridor and began to follow the retreating duo at a good distance. He rounded the corner hoping he didn't have any more encounters like that one.

* * *

Elsa and Octoslaughter walked into the dungeon where Kimberly and Katherine were being held. She motioned the Tyrannodrones away from the door then looked over to Octoslaughter.

"Open the door", She said.

Octoslaughter gave a quick nod and did as he was commanded. The door swung open and Elsa immediately launched into her evil diatribe.

"I hope the two of you slept well, because I doubt you'll be getting any tod... Where are they?"

Elsa's eyes widened as she stepped just inside the cell and could not find any trace of them. She peered behind the door and all around the very small room but saw no sight of them. She whirled around violently and nearly ran to the nearest Tyrannodrone.

"YOU! Where are they? How did they escape? Did you leave your post at all?"

The Tyrannodrone just buzzed, cocked its head to the side, and shrugged at her.

"IDIOTS! Mesogog will have your heads if you don't find them! Sound the alarm and search the complex immediately!"

All of the Tyrannodrones fled the room at the end of her sentence and began to search for the two missing prisoners. Octoslaughter waited patiently by the door for Elsa to give him a command. After a few moments the alarms came on and she turned to the monster to speak.

"We will also join the search, because if we don't find them it will be our heads as well."

Octoslaughter nodded to her, turned around and proceeded out the door. Elsa lingered for a moment to calm herself and then followed it down the corridor.

"Are they gone?"

"Seems like it."

Out from the corner of the cell behind the in-swung door popped a pink clothed head, complete with ninja mask. She looked around a quick moment before fully stepping out of her hiding place. Out the door she could see that there were no more bad guys around to alert anyone that they were still there. She waved her friend out of the hiding place and they began to formulate a plan of escape.

"So Kim, any idea which way is out?"

"No clue really, that damn monster had a tentacle over my eyes when we came in."

"Okay, so we just sneak out and try to find the exit then?"

"That's the plan, yeah."

Kat rolled her eyes, "Wow, great plan."

Kim slapped her arm lightly, "Hush, lets get going."

With a full arsenal of Ninjetti powers at their disposal, they crept out into the alarm riddled corridor and began to look for a way out.

* * *

Trent was creeping his way down the hallway behind Elsa and Octoslaughter. He arrived at the dungeon entrance just in time to hear Elsa bark the commands to find the escaped prisoners. _They must have escaped. Sounds like Elsa is pretty pissed. _He looked for the nearest hiding place to dive into as the drones inside the holding area sprang into action and headed for the door. He found a shallow alcove about ten feet behind him and dove for it. He activated his camouflage powers and silently waited to see what happened. A little less than a minute had passed before tens of Tyrannodrones shot past him and ran out of sight. The klaxons began to blare not long after the drones were out of didn't have much time to think about it as suddenly Octoslaughter walked right past him. The creature stopped for a moment and then turned to look at the alcove. It thought about it for a moment but then continued on down the red flashing hallway.

By this time Trent was a bit freaked out. It had almost seemed like Octoslaughter had sensed he was there just like back in the other corridor. He didn't have time to think about it however, as Elsa strode past her next seemingly in quite a hurry. Trent was relieved to see that the ladies were no longer in enemy hands, but he was unsure if they knew how to get out of the dungeon.

Trent decided that the best thing to do in this situation was to sit tight for a moment, and give Dr. O. an update.

* * *

"Good, that's really good Ryan", Conner said, sounding impressed.

"Thanks, all three of you, little tips like that should be a big help."

Ethan smiled at him, "Not as much as being able to throw one of them around with your mind like a rag doll."

Ryan laughed at him, "It's actually not as easy as it looks, small objects are one thing, big things like people and stuff, quite another."

"Really? So it's not like Star Wars and the Force? You know, mind over matter?"

He grimaced, "Well yes and no. Think of it like a muscle thats never been used. Sure you can exercise it and make it stronger, but try to go from curling ten pounds to fifty pounds overnight. You're going to struggle a bit."

All three of the teens nodded, and Conner spoke, "Okay, so its not impossible but you'll tire out a whole lot quicker."

Ryan nodded at him, "Bingo. I can use my gem powers a bit more naturally then you. Your powers, or so I've understood from conversations with Tommy, are more like on/off switches. There's a bit of power growth in you three, faster speed, louder screams, stronger skin and muscles, but Trent and Tommy's gem powers are a bit limited in the way of growth. How do you become MORE invisible? Or MORE camouflaged?"

"Yeah that does make it a bit easier to understand. You figured that all out just by listening to Dr. O and working with your own powers?"

Ryan nodded, "I've had a bit of time to think. Anything to take my mind off the fact that that asshole has my best friend and Kat."

Kira changed the subject quickly, "Well we would show you more, but some things just have to be experienced in order to learn exactly what its like."

"Thanks for the pointers guys" Ryan smiled. "No sense fighting on an empty stomach, lets see what Tommy has in the way of breakfast."

Conner laughed and clapped him on the shoulder, "Sounds good, I'm starved!"

* * *

Trent was still hiding in a corner as Tyrannodrones ran rampant around the base corridors, just when he thought it would be safe to move, he would see one coming and have to re-camouflage. He was about to contact Tommy to ask what he should do when he heard voices coming from the direction of the dungeon.

"You have any idea where to go?"

"Not a clue, thats why im trying to figure it out by watching these little buggers zip up and down the hallways."

"Well it seems the one ahead is a major corridor, there's lots more up there than are down this one."

Trent waited as two figures in pink snuck around his corner and a bit past him. They stopped suddenly and looked in his direction.

"Trent? What are you doing here?", Kim asked.

"Huh? You can see me?", He asked in an incredulous tone of voice.

Kim cocked her head to the side and replied, "Yeah, plain as day. Why?"

"I'm camouflaged. The drones can't see me."

Kim smiled, "Well apparently your camo powers are no match for Ninjetti skills."

"Ninjetti skills?" He asked. "Is that what those pink ninja outfits are?"

"Yeah", She said. "But more on that later. You know the way out?"

He shook the befuddled cobwebs out of his head and replied, "Yeah, no sweat."

"Great, lets boogie", She grabbed his hand and all three of them headed for the busy hallway ahead.

* * *

Tommy was still down in his basement pacing. Hayley was hard at work on the console in front of him, but was becoming annoyed with him.

"Would you stop pacing for God's sake? You're going to wear a hole in the floor."

Tommy looked up at her and bit his lip, "Sorry, any word from Trent?"

Hayley shook her head, "No word yet. He's about twenty minutes past due for a check in."

Tommy sighed worriedly.

"Hey, if anyone knows those tunnels and corridors, it's Trent. I'm sure he's fine."

* * *

"This way Kim", Trent motioned towards the corridor behind him.

"Come on Kat", she said as she and Kat made their way towards the next doorway.

Trent allowed them to catch up to him then he peeked through the doorway to check the corridor for drones. Seeing none he turned back to give the girls a thumbs up and then turned the corner only to smack straight into Elsa. The girls gasped as Trent jumped back and dropped into a defensive stance.

"Well well, we found you at last. Time to go back to your cell, and this time you'll have extra company."

Kat stepped forward to Elsa and shook her finger at her, "Sorry to say this you goth reject, but you don't have anyone."

"Oh, yeah?", Elsa growled, stepped up to Kat and grabbed the front of her gi. Kat reacted by throwing a handful of flash powder. When the smoke had cleared the trio were gone and all Elsa had in her hand was an empty pink ninja gi.

"TYRANNODRONES! THEY ARE HERE! FIND THEM NOW!", Elsa screamed in pure anger.

Drones flooded in from all directions and began searching the area thoroughly. Around the corner however, all three unmorphed heroes sat hidden from view, discussing their options.

"Nice trick", Trent said.

Kat smiled at him, "Yeah it comes in handy, so now what do we do?"

"Well, Elsa knows there's a portal in this area and so she is going to figure that's where we are going. Unfortunately for us, that IS where we need to go. We are going to have to find it quickly and create a distraction in order to get through. We are also going to need to do it quick, we won't stay hidden for long here."

Kim nodded, "Well you're the expert on the dungeon and its denizens, what do you suggest?"

Trent smiled at her, "I suggest that you two having less strength than a fully morphed ranger get your butts out the portal while I distract them. Besides, you're the one they want anyway."

"Okay, I don't like it, but I do see the logic", Kim conceded.

"So you're going to morph and take them on to give us time to get out? Even a morphed ranger won't last long against all those drones, Elsa AND Octoslaughter", Kat stated with concern on her face.

Kim pressed a finger into his chest, "Thats right bub, as soon as we are out, your ass better be the next thing we see tumble through that rabbit hole, got it?"

Trent grinned widely, "No problem, ladies. Lets get you home."

Trent stood and formed his usual stance. "WHITE RANGER! DINO POWER!"

His morphing sequence commenced in a flash of white light which left the White Dino Thunder Ranger standing before Kim and Kat. He then spoke another command to his armor.

"SUPER DINO MODE!"

Kat and Kim were awed by the new look.

"Wow cool duds there spikey, that ought to hold them for long enough, but just in case", Kim glanced at Kat with a grin.

Both women took their stances and waved their hands in a half moon arc that glittered with pink electricity.

"NINJA RANGER POWER! NOW!"

All three heroes now looked at each other, ready for battle.

"All right then, lets do this", Trent said as he turned and ran into the corridor behind him. Kim and Kat were quickly on his heels and sprinting towards the location of the portal.

Trent slid in first and released a torrent of energy into the first group of drones with his long black claws. Kim and Kat picked off the stragglers with stealth and accuracy. Before it had begun, the first battle was over.

"Don't get disappointed ladies, there's more up ahead, and now they know where we are. The portal is ahead about one hundred yards, lets go."

The trio sprinted ahead again, this time met with almost three times as many drones. As they would knock one drone down, another two would appear behind it. They were gaining ground, but barely. Trent hacked, slashed and kicked for his life, but soon it was apparent that they were no longer gaining ground to the portal. As he noticed this, Kim saw Elsa and Octoslaughter finally join the fray.

"TRENT! We have more company! And they look pissed!"

"Make a run for the portal just ahead of us! I'll be right behind you!"

Kim grimaced underneath her mask, "If you aren't the next thing out of this portal im coming back in to help these goddamn Tyrannodrones whoop your ass!"

Trent laughed, "Don't worry! Now go!"

Kim and Kat each finished off a Tyrannodrone then ran for the portal just down the corridor. Using their Ninjetti speed, they got to the portal before Elsa or Octoslaughter could get to the battle. After a look back at the battle, they both dove through the portal and into the forest on the other side. Kim and Kat regained their footing and waited for the portal to spit out Trent. They waited a few seconds. Finally seeing two drones fly through, they dropped into defensive stances and waited for them to attack, but it never came. The drones stayed motionless on the ground as Trent flipped through the portal and ran towards them.

"Run! They won't be far behind!"

Kim and Kat didn't need a second warning as they took off in a run alongside Trent.

* * *

After waiting downstairs for about half an hour, Tommy decided to go back upstairs to see how everyone else was doing. Halfway through his trip up the stairs, he began to smell the faint aroma of food being cooked. At the top he recognized the smell as eggs and... garlic? He walked into the kitchen to find Ryan at the stove cooking a big batch of eggs while munching on a bowl of his Captain Crunch.

Conner looked over at him as he approached, "Hey Dr. O, Ryan is cooking some of what he calls his "Killer Eggs". Smells like a winner to me!"

Tommy laughed, "Yeah killer if you are a vampire. Garlic with eggs? Really?"

Ryan held up a finger as he finished a bite of Captain Crunch, "Don't knock it until you've tried it. Eggs with some fresh chopped garlic, melted cheese and maybe a bit of ham, oh lord look out!"

The whole group couldn't help but smile as he delivered the description with the enthusiasm of a Carrabba's commercial.

"I have enough here for everyone to have some, including your hard working girl downstairs. I know you guys are waiting for word from Trent, but we can hear his update from up here and none of us will be any good fighting without any ass kicking fuel."

Conner nodded at Tommy, "I'm sure that Hayley could use a break, from what I've heard she was up all night watching the monitors for any sign of them."

"Great!", Ryan Said. "Go get her. They should be done any time now."

* * *

Tommy plodded down the stairs to find Hayley slumped back in her chair. He walked up to her and confirmed his suspicion. She was asleep.

"Wake up, Hayley", He said gently.

She took a moment to wake up fully, then she yawned and looked up at him, "Crap did I fall asleep?"

"Apparently, come on upstairs, Ryan made eggs for everyone", He said with a smile.

Hayley nodded and got out of her chair. Just as she was stretching and about to walk toward the stairs, the computer alarms began to go off. Hayley was now wide awake as she quickly plopped back into her chair.

"Is it Trent?"

"I don't know", She said. "But it's invisiportal activity, and it's the portal he used to go in. Probably a good bet."

Tommy raised his communicator to his lips, "Trent, do you copy?"

Trent's voice came back over the communicator in rushed breaths with an obvious commotion behind him, "_Yeah I'm here but I'm a bit busy running for my life with Kat and Kim_!"

"Keep running Trent, we are headed your direction to help!"

Tommy turned and rushed up the stairs without a single word.

* * *

Tommy bounded up the stairs three at a time. His aim on the last step however, missed and he flopped onto the stairs with a loud thud. The group of friend now happily eating garlic eggs all heard the commotion at once and looked at Tommy. He picked himself up from his prone position, hanging halfway into the room and kept heading for the front door.

"No time to lose! Kira, Conner, and Ethan get outside and morph right now! We have bad guys on their way!"

All three teens dropped their utensils quickly and followed their leader out the door. Ryan did the same but at a slightly slower pace as to not get in the way. Once he made it outside he caught the end of the team's morphing sequence, and listened to Tommy speak.

"Okay, Trent is on his way back right now with bad guys on his tail. He says he has Kim and Kat with him. We need to go and back them up."

"Right!", All three teens exclaimed.

"Tommy!", Ryan called out, and pointed behind the teens.

He turned to look the direction in which Ryan was pointing and saw Trent running towards them with two figures clad head to toe in pink behind him. Once everyone saw who was coming, they all ran out to the edge of the tree line to meet up with Trent.

"How far behind are they, Trent?", Tommy asked.

Trent breathed heavy in between his words, "Not far. We had to fight through a legion of drones to get out, and just before we left, they sent Elsa and that big guy after us."

"Okay, here's the plan. Conner, Kira, Ethan and I will take care of Octoslaughter and the main group of drones. Trent you stay in the back with Kim, Kat, and Ryan to help them fend off any drones that might get by us. We will have time to find out why they are dressed like Ninjetti later."

Ethan looked behind him in time to notice the wall of drones coming towards them, "Dr. O, here they come!"

Tommy grimaced behind his helmet, "Okay guys, defensive positions! Don't let any of them through if you can help it!"

Trent dropped back towards the house with Ryan, Kim and Kat, as Tommy, Conner, Ethan and Kira took fighting stances. The first wave of Tyrannodrones came in and was quickly dealt with by the foursome. The second wave came shortly afterward and met a similar, if longer, fate. By then, the first drones were on their feet again and coming back for more.

Kira dodged a strike from her left, pulled out her Ptera Grips and gashed across the chest of the next one in line. Lunging back to her right, she crossed her grips in front of her and blocked an incoming overhead swipe from another. "Nice try ugly", she said before dropping back and planting a foot directly into its chin.

Conner spun and backhanded a drone across the face then finished the job with a sidekick. The next drone came from his blind side making him lose his balance as he tried to dodge the attack. From his back, he kicked out and swept the legs of his attacker and then planted a heel into its chest. Conner then rocked back onto his hands and flipped himself to his feet, prepared for the next foe.

Tommy parried an incoming attack with his Brachio Staff then cracked the drone across the temple with it. The drone dropped to the ground and didn't get back up. The next one came at him from behind. Tommy casually dropped to one knee and slammed the staff into the drone's stomach. He noticed Elsa and Octoslaughter weren't attacking yet, maybe they were waiting for them to tire out.

Ethan was the unlucky ranger to get three attacking him at the same time. He summoned his shield and blocked all three of the attacks at once, then shoved the drones backward. He reached out with the top of the shield and caught one drone right under the chin then spun backward and backhanded the shield across the face of the next. The last drone was the unlucky recipient of a sharp kick to the abdomen. He looked back at the foursome who had retreated nearer to Dr. O's house. Trent was about to have house guests.

Trent and Ryan saw the approaching drones and nodded to each other. Ryan held out his hands and mentally restrained them all while Trent drew up a few laser arrows with his sword and then aimed them at the drones. "Laser Arrows, fire!" The arrows all found their marks easily, as every drone dropped to the ground. Ryan and Trent gave each other a high five and then turned their attention back to the other rangers.

By the time the last drone had fallen, Elsa had seen enough.

"Well rangers, you have proven that Tyrannodrones are no match for you, but how about our big eight armed friend here?"

"We'll send him back to Mesogog in pieces just like all the others", Conner stated confidently.

Elsa just smiled, "We shall see Red Ranger."

Without another word, Octoslaughter charged them with a speed never before seen by one of Mesogog's monsters. The rangers tried to block his attacks with their weapons but the strikes came in quicker than they could defend. As Trent and Ryan watched in horror, Trent began to shake with anger. Ryan placed a hand on his shoulder and Trent looked over at him. Ryan nodded to him and that was all the signal he needed. Trent took off at a blistering pace towards the battle, sword drawn and looking for a monster to kill. Trent leapt high and came down upon Octoslaughter in a surprise attack. The monster was momentarily stunned enough to allow Trent a couple good follow up slices. Finally however, it recovered enough to block a volley of attacks and gave one of its own. Octoslaughter pummeled Trent with attacks and at the end picked him up and began to squeeze him. Trent's screams of anguish were audible for miles.

"Put him down asshole!", came the scream from Kira. She was limping slightly but she attacked head on anyway. Octoslaughter gave her the same treatment as Trent had gotten and now he had two rangers ensnared and writhing in agony. Ethan was holding his left arm as if it were broken. Conner had taken a shot to the head so hard, it broke his faceplate. Tommy was nigh on unable to stand because of a hit he had taken to his left thigh. The Rangers were decimated. Ryan, Kim and Kat looked on in shock. The Power Rangers aren't supposed to lose. Ryan looked down at his left wrist. The orange gem sat in its bracelet quietly, waiting for its master to give the command. The time had come. Ryan knew what he had to do.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Yeah I like the power rangers. Guilty as charged. thats the ONLY charge I'm guilty of. None of this belongs to me, thus I am making no money off anything in this story. Sue me if you want but you won't get much. I'm poor, lol.

* * *

Kim and Kat watched the fight in utter horror. To say that it wasn't going well, was a massive understatement. Sparks of battle damage continued to fly from Trent and Kira as the eight armed abomination continued his work. Tommy attacked with blast after blast from his Brachio Staff but nothing seemed to phase the monster. Kim and Kat turned to look at each other at the same time and knew what they had to do.

"Ninjetti!", They both cried out as they made the morphing hand movements. However just as they were about to sprint off to join the battle, they were both grabbed at the back of their ninja gi's. Ryan spun them around to face him.

"Now I just know that you two aren't about to do what it looks like you're about to do."

"What choice do we have?", Kat asked. "I don't know about Kim, but standing around and watching our friends die isn't what I had in mind for a morning activity!"

Ryan smiled, "Belive me Kat, it isn't on my agenda either. I have a plan, and I'm going to need you two to pull this off."

* * *

"Dr. O! We need to get them down from there! They're getting shaken around like rag dolls!", Ethan shouted.

"I know Ethan, but in the fighting condition we are in, its gonna take a goddamn miracle to get this monster to retreat let alone kill it!"

Suddenly from the direction of Tommy's house came a blast of wind and dust. Conner shielded the hole in his faceplate with his hand in order to see in that direction. All three of the Rangers on the ground turned in that direction just in time to see a giant ball of orange energy shoot out of the dust cloud and strike Octoslaughter in the chest with a thunderous crack.

Octoslaughter reeled backward and roared in pain as the blast hit him. As he staggered back, he had to flail his arms to keep his balance, thus dropping Trent and Kira. Just as quickly as the blast had shot in, two pink streaks of light zipped along the ground and scooped up the injured duo. The monster roared with anger this time as he realized that his captives had been taken from him. Denied his previous toys, his arms shot out to gather up the rest of the injured Rangers. Another whip of wind lashed out and a second bolt of orange energy slammed into the black behemoth. As the energy hit him, the same two streaks of pink light raced in and snatched the other Rangers from harms way. Tommy watched as his Rangers disappeared from the battlefield. Knowing now what the pink streaks of speed had been, he retreated back to his house to check on them.

Devoid of any more playthings, Octoslaughter squared himself to face the direction the energy blasts had come from to see a form walking toward him from inside the dust. The form kept walking forward towards the beast, as it finally emerged from the cloud of dust.

His uniform was similar to Tommy's in that the diamonds on the sides were gold. His helmet took the typical form of this Ranger incarnation and displayed what looked like the silhouette of a raptor skull. His chest was covered with an armored vest similar to the one Tommy used to wear as the white Ranger, but the symbol in the middle of the chestplate was definitely dino thunder. This Ranger's color, was orange.

Ryan strode towards Octoslaughter with purpose in his demeanor and ignored everything around him except the monster. Elsa looked on from the sidelines, shocked at how quickly she had gone from elation at the inevitable defeat of the Power Rangers to the feeling of dread and the incredulous stare she now wore upon her face.

"What are you waiting for you moron! Attack him!"

Elsa's words sparked the monster into motion. He threw blast after blast of energy at Ryan, only to watch him deflect them with the backs of his hands like they were annoying flies. All the while, he kept walking. Octoslaughter roared once again with anger, charged at the new hero and threw all eight of his tentacles at him. Ryan set his footing and made sure they only managed to grasp him on the arms. If the monster would have had a mouth, he would have smiled. He pulled on his tentacles to bring Ryan towards him, but he didn't budge. The large eight armed creature strained and groaned as he pulled with all his might to try to move the Raptor Ranger, but the newest weapon in the Power Ranger arsenal held his ground.

"My turn", Ryan said calmly.

Ryan leaned back and pulled Octoslaughter toward him with all his might. The eight armed fury lifted off the ground and flew at Ryan only to receive a reverse roundhouse kick to the head upon arrival. Octoslaughter flew backward just as fast as he had come in, landing on the ground, and sliding a few feet to a stop.

Ryan turned to Elsa and pointed straight at her. "Now, get your ass out of here, and take that heap of shit with you."

Ryan finished what he had to say and didn't wait for a reply. He turned away from Elsa and began walking back in the direction of Tommy's house, where the girls had taken all the injured Rangers.

Elsa stood there slack-jawed and unsure of what to do for a moment. She looked down at Octoslaughter who in two hits had been dazed so badly he was having trouble staying in a standing position.

"Ugh, come on you worthless excuse for a mollusk", she grumbled as she opened an invisiportal back to Mesogog's lair for the both of them.

* * *

Ryan arrived at Tommy's house still morphed to a nightmarish scene of broken and bruised bodies the likes of which he had never seen before. All of the Rangers were powered down and conscious, though some of them looked like they shouldn't be. Kat and Kim turned to the door as he walked inside.

"Oh thank god, Ryan. We had hoped that you were okay." Kim gave him a huge hug and a sigh of relief. "Are you injured anywhere?"

"I don't know, I don't think so. What about them? Don't we need to take them to the hospital?"

"No, they don't appear to have any life threatening injuries", Hayley replied for Kim as she came up the stairs behind them. "However, I do think it would be a good idea to bring them downstairs so I can scan them and make sure nothing got re-arranged too badly."

"I'll give you a hand, just as soon as I can figure out how to get out of this thing."

Hayley smiled a bit, "Just give it the command "power down" and you should pop right out of it. The five of them don't even say it anymore, they just think it and poof, no more armor."

"Thanks Hayley", Ryan replied. He then concentrated and the armor around him exploded into bright orange shards and fell away.

"Kat, help me get Ethan downstairs first please, that broken arm needs to take first priority."

Kat nodded at Hayley and carefully helped Ethan to the stairwell. Kim and Ryan stayed upstairs to help care for the other four injured Rangers. Kim was dying to know what had happened after she and Kat left the battlefield with the other Rangers. She gave Ryan a quick once over, checking for bruises amidst his grumbles of protest. She finished a few moments later with an unbelieving look on her face, which she then turned to look him in the eyes.

"You got away without even a single bruise?"

"You sound disappointed. Want me to punch myself really hard?", He said with a grin.

"NO! I mean, how did you do it?"

"Stick and move? Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee?"

"Ryan I'm serious! Octoslaughter took out five fully powered Rangers all at once. YOU have been a Ranger for five minutes, went in alone and not only came out alive, but without even a scratch on you!"

Ryan kneeled beside Conner as Kim checked on Tommy on the adjacent couch.

"We might want to keep Conner conscious just in case he has any serious head trauma", Tommy said. Having a mother that works at a hospital tended to come in handy sometimes.

"Stop moving while I try to put this brace on your wrist", Kim chided him. Even though she was deeply concerned about the condition of all of them, she couldn't help it that her curiosity was getting the better of her.

"So? Did you kill it?"

"Did I kill what, Kim?", Ryan asked as he applied a patch of gauze over Conner's injured eye.

"Did you kill Octoslaughter?"

"He better have", Conner piped up. "That son of a bitch got me in the eye."

"Hush while I fix your eyepatch, One-eyed Willie", Ryan growled at him.

He took a moment during the long pause of silence to finish applying the patch, sat back on his feet and sighed.

"I'll take that as a no", She stated as she finished strapping a wrist brace on Tommy's left wrist.

"I couldn't do it, Kim. I'm not a killer. It might be evil, but it's alive."

Kim finished with the brace, then came over and sat beside Ryan. "Normally I would agree with you. I had the same problem when we first started so many years ago. But, soon I realized, that the evil we faced didn't have the same compassion for us. Most of the time the monsters we fought were created by magically imbuing an object, or some other unnatural way. Whether it was magic, crystals, technology or yes even the underworld, these things were created by evil, and all we did was break a spell to return things to as they were. To use a movie quote I'm sure you know, 'One does not kill a demon, one merely sends them back to the hell from whence they came."

Kim's quote finally elicited a smile from him. He looked up at her with gratitude in his eyes.

Tommy chipped in his two cents, "She's right Ryan. You should have destroyed that monster. Its not alive. If you don't, Mesogog will just repair and enhance it, and send it right back."

"How soon?"

Tommy adjusted his wrist brace to a slightly more comfortable position with a wince, "I don't know. That'll depend on how badly you hurt it, and how pissed Mesogog is."

* * *

Mesogog was waiting as Elsa and Octoslaughter returned to his lair. He was noticeably unhappy but surprisingly calm. Failure of this type is most definitely unacceptable, however he had learned that nothing ever goes completely according to plan, especially when the Rangers are involved.

"So Elsa, even when given the most powerful monster we have ever created, you still manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory."

Elsa knelt at his feet humbly and pitifully, "But master! There was a new Ranger that appeared at the last minute with devastating power!"

"SILENCE! Your failure is disappointing, but not unexpected. Your ineptitude seems to grow with every passing moment."

"My apologies master! Please give me another opportunity to redeem myself!"

Mesogog regarded her wistfully. _Although Elsa has a lengthy track record of failure, perhaps her recent success at the beach had given her a taste of something to strive for. "_Very well Elsa, tend to Octoslaughter and return to me when you are prepared to... redeem yourself."

"Thank you master." Elsa said with a sigh of relief.

Mesogog nodded, turned around sharply and strode out of the room.

Elsa turned to Octoslaughter, "What the hell happened out there? How could you lose?"

"Forgive me mistress. The new Rangers speed and strength caught me by surprise. It will not happen again."

"When will you be ready to go?"

Octoslaughter thought for a moment, "All I require is a short rest, then I will have my revenge."

Elsa smiled widely, "Excellent, we shall leave in an hour. Even with a new Ranger, they don't stand a chance."

* * *

All of the injured Rangers minus Kira were in the living room attempting to rest, some more fitfully than others. Hayley's scans had thankfully revealed that the glancing blow to the head Conner had taken had only broken his faceplate and some blood vessels in his eye. The cuts around it were just collateral damage. Ethan's broken arm had been set and put into an air cast so it could heal properly. The only Ranger so far without any form of bandages was Trent, as there wasn't a whole lot that could be done about bruising or cracked ribs.

Ryan, Kim and Kat turned from what they were doing to see Tommy attempting to sit upright. Kim rushed over and tried to guide him back to a prone position but Tommy was adamant.

"Lay down Tommy, you need rest."

"No, I need to sit up."

"Thomas James Oliver, you need to rest and you know it!"

"Woah there, little Miss Kimmy, ease up on the middle name usage! You sound like my mother."

"I do not! Your mom would get a bit of that annoying Fran Drescher whine in her voice when she would yell."

Tommy just gave her the evil eye, and Kim knew what it meant.

"Well she did! Anyway though, you still need to rest."

"Well I can rest sitting up. It's easier to breathe sitting up at the moment", Tommy paused as he searched the left side of his torso with his right hand and sucked in a sharp breath when he found what he was looking for. "Ow, yup. You guys need to add a cracked rib or two to the injury list."

Kim turned to Ryan as she finally noticed his snickering in the background of their conversation. "Whats so damn funny?"

Ryan had an involuntary smile on his face, "You two fight like an old married couple. The comedy is priceless."

Kim looked around quickly, decided on a weapon and whipped a throw pillow at Ryan's head. Ryan swiftly blocked the pillow and kept laughing.

"So how long do you think this all will take to heal Tommy?", Kim asked after giving Ryan a raspberry.

Ryan looked at her with a confused expression at such an odd request.

"Eh, tough to say really, what's the injury list look like?", Tommy asked.

"Well, Ethan has a broken left arm, a pretty nasty bruise on his chest and a sprained ankle. Kira looks like she has at least a sprained left knee and took at least one nasty shot to the kidney. Not to mention all the marks on her abdomen from Octoslaughter trying to squeeze the life from her. Hayley is taking a look at her now. Conner took a shot to the face that broke his helmet, giving him a really nice shiner and broke some blood vessels in his eye. It turned completely red but Hayley says it should be fine. He also has a mild concussion from the same blow and various bruises. Trent has a lot of bruising around his neck where he was held by Octoslaughter. He also has a few cracked ribs and lots of bruising around them because of being squeezed there as well. And finally you, Tommy. You have a deep thigh bruise, a sprained if not broken wrist, and now a couple cracked ribs."

Tommy whistled, "Wow, he certainly put a dent in us. I take it that I have you two and Kat to thank for that rescue?"

He turned his head slowly and shot Ryan a knowing look, "You morphed huh? I figured thats where that orange energy came from."

Ryan nodded sheepishly, "Yeah, I got to a point where I just knew I had to do something, so I told Kim and Kat to get you guys out of there while I distracted it. By the way, how did you do that so fast?"

Kim shared a glance with Kat and smiled, "The same way we got out of Mesogog's dungeon. The Ninjetti powers also grant us super speed."

Tommy looked bewildered, "Wait, I thought our ninjetti powers were gone?"

Kim shook her head, "The Crane spirit guide appeared to us in our cell. She helped us figure out that although our Ranger powers from that time are permanently gone, the ninjetti powers we had, never left. They came from us and not our power coins."

"You think mine is still around too?"

"Its possible, but don't go and find out right now, you are still pretty injured here mister Oliver."

He smiled, "Don't worry your pretty head. I might be curious about it but I don't want you using my middle name again."

Kim glared at him as she realized she probably shouldn't hit someone quite so injured already.

"So back to my original question. How long are you guys going to be out of action?", Ryan asked.

Tommy thought for a moment, "Well, Ethan will be out for the longest with that broken arm. Barring any internal injuries, Kira sounds like the best off. She and Conner should be good to go by tomorrow."

Ryan interrupted him, "Wait what!"

Tommy looked up at him, "Oh yeah. You don't know about the best part about being a Ranger. The Ranger powers give us accelerated healing. It really only speeds up when we are asleep, but I've just about cut my finger off before while I was cooking. I bandaged it up nice and neat then went to bed and it was healed about seven hours later, I just had to rip off the scab at the end."

"Gross!", Kim said while slapping him on the shoulder, regretting it after remembering he was injured.

Tommy winced slightly, "Well, I'm sure you've done it before, too."

"Wow, that's amazing!", Ryan said.

Tommy held his hands up, "Don't get too excited, you aren't immortal or anything. A mortal wound is still a mortal wound, and if you get a limb cut off you aren't going to grow a new one. All it does is accelerate the healing of injuries that would normally fix themselves. We still have to set broken bones, brace weakened joints, and bandage things properly, too."

"Well, thats a bummer."

Tommy just rolled his eyes, "So anyway, Trent and I should be good to go later in the day tomorrow, and Ethan probably the day after. We are gonna need a lot of food and rest though. The faster healing uses raw materials faster too."

"Well food can be solved later, but I'm sure the nurses would agree that a little bit of rest is in order for all of us."

Tommy nodded in agreement, "Yeah the more, the better. Depending on how badly you beat up Octoslaughter, I'm willing to bet that Mesogog is going to press his advantage with so many of us injured. No telling when he will send it back."

Kim, Kat, and Tommy all looked at Ryan as he began to laugh nervously, "Well see Tommy thats just the thing, I kinda just knocked him around a bit, and told him and the she-bitch to take a hike."

Kim slapped herself on the forehead and groaned.

"Well," Tommy said calmly. "That could be a problem."

Kat picked this moment to interject, "Well it doesn't really change the situation much, you all need rest, and you can't fight Octoslaughter when he comes back anyway. Get some sleep, Ryan, Kim and I will handle him when he returns."

Ryan shot Kat a raised eyebrow, "Yeah, we are gonna talk about that by the way."

"Okay, don't mind me then but I think I'm going to try to sleep sitting up, laying on these ribs was killing me." Tommy said as he shoved a pillow underneath his arm to lean his damaged ribs on.

"Right," Kat said. "Lets go you two, I think we've patched up these four about as much as we can. Lets go see if Hayley can tell us when it'll be back.

Ryan and Kim nodded and headed for the stairs. Kat sighed, and lingered at the top of the stairs long enough to see that all of their patients were fast asleep.

* * *

Hayley had just finished putting a knee brace on Kira when she heard the trio coming down the stairs behind her.

"Okay Kira, that should do it. I can't do much to bandage a kidney unfortunately."

Kira smiled, "That's alright Hayley, it already feels a lot better than it did."

Kat walked up to them and looked at Kira, "Your teammates are resting upstairs, you should probably join them and get some rest yourself."

Kira nodded and headed for the stairs. Ryan got there right behind her and gave her a helping hand with the climb.

Hayley chuckled under her breath," I'll tell you what Kim, I'm not sure what to make of Ryan. One minute he's a complete chauvinist, and the next he's opening doors and helping injured girls up the stairs."

Kim nodded at Hayley, "That's just the way he is. Most of the male ego thing is just to annoy me of course. I just put up with it because I know he doesn't really mean it. So then, any new info on that monster that we didn't know before?"

"No, unfortunately. Ryan gave him a few good shots but it doesn't look like much has changed."

A sound of footsteps from the stairs meant Ryan was returning from the living room upstairs that had become the medical ward. Kim turned and looked, only to find him walking toward them and happily munching on a piece of beef jerky. She gave him a funny look.

"What? He had a bag in the pantry. Seemed appropriate seeing as how I just beat up an eight-armed sasquatch. Besides, someone's timely escape interrupted my breakfast", Ryan smiled.

Kim shook her head, "Only you..."

"It's a gift", Ryan said with a shrug.

"Anyway", Said Hayley. "Seeing as how he didn't take much damage in the fight, we should be hearing from him soon."

"Speaking of bad guys, you used your little pink ninja suits to get out of Mesogog's dungeon. How powerful are they?"

Kat shrugged at Ryan, "Barely enough to be of use. They supply us with speed, a bit more strength, and a few illusion tools which we can use to our advantage; but beyond that, most of the power comes from us. Going up against monsters with them would be nearly impossible. They do make fights with the minions far easier though."

"Cool, can I have one?"

Kim rolled her eyes and replied while Kat just laughed, "We got them from a secret temple. We had to go through some incredible trials of wisdom and strength to get them. My Ninjetti Ranger powers were transferred to Kat when I left for Florida and thats how she got hers. When the Machine Empire showed up, the Ninjetti Ranger powers were destroyed, but apparently the ninjetti suits stayed a part of us", Kim explained.

"Awesome. Don't get me wrong, I was ready to come and get you girls out, but it was sure a lot easier to get you out this way!"

Kim stuck her tongue out at Ryan and he gave her a big hug. Taken into a tight embrace, she just sighed with a grin and patted him on the back.

"I hate to put a damper on the light-hearted mood", Hayley interrupted. "but I think your eight armed friend just decided to make an appearance downtown."

Ryan released Kim and turned to the monitor. Just as Hayley had said, there were images of Octoslaughter downtown scaring people and making a mess.

"Damn, I thought I put more of a dent in him than that. Guess I'll just have to put an end to him this time."

"Kat and I will help you."

Ryan shook his head strongly, "No way missy. You just told me that your ninjetti suits weren't all that powerful. Tommy and his team had full Ranger powers, you won't stand a chance in that Halloween costume."

Kim opened her mouth to protest.

"AH AH! No argument! I'm putting my foot down on this one."

Kim slumped her shoulders. Ryan did have a good point, and the man was just so goddamn stubborn sometimes when he has made up his mind.

"At least let us go with you and help clear the area", Kat pleaded. "There will be a lot of frightened people needing someone to point them in the right direction."

Ryan sighed, "Alright, but get those people safe and get the fuck out. There's no telling how bad its gonna get."

"Just make sure and be careful with those energy blasts. Aiming is important downtown where there's a lot of people and buildings", Kim suggested.

"The other problem is transportation. It would look kinda silly to see a Power Ranger pull up in a car and I don't think my friend is gonna wait for me to pedal my ass downtown."

Hayley chimed in with another addition to the plan, "I'll program Tommy's ATV to recognize you and you can use that."

Ryan's eyes lit up with glee, "Cool can I use it to go mudding afterward? I've always wanted to do that!"

"NO", all three girls answered at once.

"Spoiled sports", Ryan mumbled.

"How are you two getting downtown though?" Hayley asked, looking at Kim and Kat.

"Oh that's easy, we can use the same super speed that we used to get the others away from Octoslaughter."

Kat nodded, agreeing with her friend.

"Okay, power up then and be on your way. I'm sure Tommy will be pretty pissed when he wakes up that I let you three go out alone, but he's not in any shape to fight anyway."

"Right, here goes nothin."

"NINJA RANGER POWER!"

Kat and Kim whirled their hands through the air and formed the ninjetti pose just as they had done a hundred times. Twin bright flashes of pink light erupted and when the light had faded, two identical pink clad ninjas stood where they had been.

"Nice", Ryan said. "My turn!"

"DINO THUNDER! POWER UP!"

Ryan's morphing sequence took the usual path as his armor assembled around him in a sea of orange light. When he had completed it, Hayley, Kim and Kat were granted a better look at the uniform of the newest Ranger than they had gotten the last time. On his helmet was indeed the skull of a velociraptor. He had gold diamonds down his arms and legs like Tommy's uniform but the diamonds were trimmed in black. His chestguard looked similar to the one Tommy had worn as the White Ranger, however the shoulderpads were curved upward into points. On the chestguard was also the Dino Thunder emblem displayed in gold against the black relief of the armor.

Ryan smiled underneath his helmet, "So? What do you think?"

Hayley grinned and was the first to comment, "I think it suits you perfectly, but there's no time to waste. Octoslaughter is having a field day out there remember?"

"Right, right. Is the ATV good to go?"

Hayley punched a few buttons on the console and looked back to him, "All set, it's waiting for you outside."

"Sweet, lets go ladies!"

All three morphed Rangers nodded in unison and ran out the door and up the ramp outside.

* * *

Ryan found Octoslaughter easily. The trail of carnage and mayhem was easy to follow, like bread crumbs from Hansel and Gretel. He rounded a corner on Tommy's ATV in time to see Octoslaughter flip a parked car into the middle of the street. The car exploded violently and Ryan looked at pieces of the car as they rolled past him.

"Hey fugly! Yeah fugly that means you. That's short for fuckin ugly, by the way. Didn't I tell you and that emo slut Elsa to get lost and not come back?"

To Ryan's surprise, the monster with no eyes and no mouth began to speak.

"Indeed you did Orange Ranger. However, idle threats from a pathetic being of the light such as yourself do not frighten those of pure evil."

"Idle huh? So you did this to draw me out? That means you're ready for another asskicking. I'm not going to be so nice this time around."

"We shall see who bests whom, defend yourself!"

Octoslaughter instantly lunged at Ryan with blazing speed. He attempted to counter but was caught off guard by the quickness of the monster. Sparks erupted from his chestplate as Octoslaughter hit him again and again. Ryan fell back against the pavement and held his chest.

"Dammit that smarts! Fine, if he wants to use cheap shots then so be it. I play to win!"

Ryan quickly got to his feet and ran at the monster. Tentacles shot in from every angle to ensnare or strike him but this time he was ready. As he ran, he batted down every incoming shot and fired some of his own toward Octoslaughters body. The small bursts of orange energy hit him with the force of a shotgun blast, making him stagger back to regain his footing. Seeing the opening, Ryan leapt to the air and planted a foot square in the side of Octoslaughter's head. The force of the impact knocked him off his feet and deep into the side of a parked car.

Ryan smirked, "Well, good thing it was just a Prius."

Octoslaughter pried himself from the mangled lump of steel and faced Ryan once again.

"Is that all you have Ranger? It will take far more than that to defeat me."

"Oh believe me, I'm far from out of options, bub."

_Shit. I thought that was a pretty good combo and he acted like it was nothing. Either he's bluffing or he's really that much tougher than I thought. Guess the answer to both is to dig deeper into my bag of tricks and pull out that can of whoop-ass I've been saving. I can't do it here though, too much property around here._

Ryan ran towards Octoslaughter as fast as he could and leapt into the air. He executed a perfect flip with a half turn over the monster and in doing so got a good look at his surroundings.

_Looks like there's a park a couple blocks over. Time for a chip shot._

He ran toward Octoslaughter a second time. Luck was not with him though, as one of Octoslaughter's tentacles penetrated his defenses and knocked him squarely upside the head, stunning him. The evil monster found this the perfect opportunity to use the same maneuver that had worked so well on Trent and Kira. He wrapped his tentacles around Ryan's neck and abdomen and pulled him in close.

"You see Ranger, you made a mistake by using the same technique twice. I found a hole in your defense."

Ryan strained against its grip gaining enough breath for a retort.

"Yeah? I found one too", He rasped.

Ryan brought his knee up sharply underneath Octoslaughter's rib cage and he was forced to drop him. Ryan fell to his back at the monster's feet and held his hands in front of him, summoning a ball of telekinetic force.

"Say, is this your boarding pass? Time to fly!"

Ryan grinned as he released the energy into Octoslaughter's abdomen and sent the eight armed menace flying through the air. He watched as Octoslaughter flew over the buildings in the direction he was hoping that he would go.

"Shit, I should have adjusted for the wind."

He looked around for a moment to try and locate the ATV he had on loan, "Now where did I leave that damn golf cart. Ahh!"

Ryan sprinted over to Tommy's vacant ATV and hopped into the seat.

"Let's go see how far from the pin we are, shall we?"

He started the ATV with a whoop of enthusiasm and drove in the direction of the park.

* * *

Kim and Kat had started near where Ryan had found Octoslaughter and cleared out as many people as they could. They also figured Ryan would need a bit more open space to work with, so they headed south and warned everyone in the park to head for cover as well. Kim was watching the last of the cars pull out of the parking lot as Kat rejoined her from the other side of the park.

"Well, thats everyone on the other side Kim. Think Ryan will see the park and head this way?"

Kim shrugged, " I dunno, but he's a bright guy. I'm sure he will figure out he can't fight downtown without breaking a few windows."

No sooner than the words had been spoken, a loud boom was heard from the downtown direction.

"Kim you hear that whistle?"

"Yeah, its like the sound a bomb makes on the way down in a cartoon."

The girls turned toward the north to see downtown Reefside in the distance. In the foreground was the park and more notably the small lake inside the park. The whistle getting louder and louder caused the girls to look skyward and what they found was something nature had not intended.

"Octopuses can't fly can they?", Kim asked.

"Not any that I've ever seen."

As the black speck in the sky got closer and closer they saw that it was indeed Octoslaughter. At the end of his flight, the monster smacked into the water's surface with a roaring wet splash. Kim and Kat looked at each other and could only think of one conclusion.

"Ryan", They said in unison.

As if he had heard his name, the sound of an ATV was soon heard. The girls looked back to the lake to find Ryan coming around the lake on Tommy's ATV. Ryan saw the girls standing there as he came around the edge of the clearing and gave an enthusiastic wave. He rested his forearms on the handlebars and motioned behind him at the lake.

"I misjudged my shot and hit the damn water hazard. I take it that the park is clear?"

Kat nodded, "Yeah, we thought you might need a bigger area to work with, so we cleared it for you."

"Great minds think alike, eh?"

"You sound like you are enjoying this, Ryan", Kim said with a touch of concern in her voice.

"Well, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't having fun beating the living shit out of the monster that injured my new friends and kidnaped two beautiful women before I got to enjoy their company at the beach."

"That making you reconsider Tommy's offer?", Kat asked.

Ryan shrugged at her, "To be honest, I don't know. That's something to be decided later. One thing's for sure though, I'm going to finish off this asswipe for good. You two head for the hills before he swims out of the lake."

"A little late for that I think", Kat stated.

The trio turned towards the lake again to find Octoslaughter trudging his way out of the water. He didn't have a mouth or eyes, but he looked pissed.

"Go now, I'll distract him", Ryan told them.

"Going so soon Rangers?"

All three of them whipped their heads around again to face the picnic tables about fifty feet away to find Elsa with a leg up on the bench and a smug look on her face.

"My master humbly requested that I help Octoslaughter to end all three of you for good. I intend to fulfill his wishes!"

Elsa waved a hand in the air and with a flick of her wrist, an invisiportal opened up and dropped out no fewer than twenty tyrannodrones.

Kim turned again to Ryan, "You handle big and ugly, we can handle the drones with ninjetti power."

Ryan nodded, "Okay. Be careful."

He turned to face the now soaking wet monster and once again set to the task at hand.

Ryan charged quickly at Octoslaughter. His furious attack caused the monster to have to backpedal towards the lake and away from the girls. Ryan attacked with punches and kicks from every direction, surprising the beast with his speed. Finally, he threw a punch he was unable to block. Ryan connected against Octoslaughter's bulbous head with a vicious uppercut and the monster was sent to his back with a dull wet thud in the sand. Octoslaughter slowly rose to his feet and released a small chuckle.

"Your speed surprises me Ranger, but if thats all you have, then this will be a short fight indeed."

Ryan smiled back at him, "Oh don't you worry, I've saved my best for last."

* * *

As Ryan sprinted off to fight Octoslaughter, Kim and Kat turned to face the incoming tyrannodrones. The drones were on them in a flash, but the girls and their ninja speed were quicker. Kat dodged the first two drones and planted a foot into the stomach of the third. The two she had dodged grabbed each one of her arms from behind her. She grinned under her mask and used her ninja strength to flip both of them at the same time.

"Hey Kim, is it strange that when I fight these things im reminded of tengas?"

Kim laughed while she swept two drones off their feet, "Nope. They are just about as dumb too."

"Lets play a bit then."

"Cool, I'm game."

Kim decided to start off her game with a few easy tricks. Two tyrannodrones grabbed her by her gi and a second later it was just a piece of clothing. The drones looked all around and couldn't find her. She popped her head out from a nearby tree.

"Hey lame brains, lose something?"

The drones turned to her and attacked. She popped back behind the tree and the drones hit the tree again and again. She popped her head back out once more and taunted them.

"I think you missed me," Kim said loudly.

She popped out from behind the tree fully and reached out with a roundhouse kick, flattening the whole lot. As more came at her from behind, she leapt into the tree and disappeared. The drones looked up immediately, searching for her whereabouts. The ground shook for a moment before Kim exploded out of the ground beneath them, sending them flying in all directions.

Kat was having a bit of fun of her own with the brainless minions. Five drones surrounded her and just as they were about to strike, she pointed to the ground and disappeared in a puff of pink smoke. The drones looked confused for a moment as their target vanished mysteriously.

Kat tapped one on the shoulder and asked a question, "Say, where did she go?"

She made a small giggle and then ran from the drones. True to form, the drones gave chase only to find her sitting on the ground a few yards away. They leapt to attack and landed on a large pink cushion. The cushion turned out to be Kat's hand as the had used her illusion powers to make herself the size of a megazord.

"Pick on someone your own size then!", Kat exclaimed.

Using her other hand, she then flicked the drones off of her hand one by one. The drones landed on the ground in a heap and didn't get back up. Kat and Kim fought them off one by one, using every trick they knew how to use. The tyrannodrones were stupid, but they had numbers on their side. Soon enough, they were fighting a losing battle and they knew it. Kim maneuvered herself closer to Kat as she fought to try and talk to her.

"Kat! At first this was kind of fun, now I don't think we are going to be able to finish it."

Kat nodded to her after dodging a punch, "Yeah, there's just too many of them. What can we do?"

Elsa smirked as she watched the tyrannodrones surround the two girls, "What you can do, is die."

"BRACHIO STAFF, FIRE STRIKE"

Balls of fire appeared out of nowhere and viciously struck the tyrannodrones. Kim and Kat reacted instantly and jumped out of the middle of the drones, leaving them in a tight pack. After the girls had gotten out of the middle of the group, a piercing scream came from another direction, causing all of the drones to cover their ears in excruciating pain.

"Dying is one thing they won't be doing today, Elsa. Go tell your master you've failed again, before you end up like every other monster we've faced", Tommy said while pointing his Brachio Staff at her.

Elsa roared in disgust and vanished into an invisiportal, along with the tyrannodrone corpses strewn about the area. Kim and Kat, seeing that the coast was clear, ran up to Tommy and Kira ready to thank them for the timely rescue, but got a different greeting.

Tommy stepped forward with a limp while holding his ribs. Kira watched him with concern on her face under the helmet but Tommy just ignored her.

"Just what in the hell were you two thinking? These things aren't exactly puttys!"

Kim shot back first, "Well we were thinking that Ryan could use the backup just in case, we didn't know were were gonna get jumped by those things afterward."

"Yes, speaking of Ryan where is he?", Tommy asked.

Kim looked back toward the beach and saw the fight. Octoslaughter and Ryan were nearly on the other side of the lake already and still going at it.

* * *

Ryan stood in front of Octoslaughter, the two gladiators were each a bit bloody and bruised, but still game for more.

"Are you ready for your surprise, Captain Jackass?", Ryan taunted.

Ryan concentrated and on the back of his armor vest appeared two sheaths criss-crossing his back. The handles were tightly wrapped in leather and on the end of each hilt was a raptor talon, curving toward his helmet. Slowly, he reached back behind his head and drew both swords. The swords he pulled out were twin ninja style katanas. The handles were a hand and a half long. The blade on both swords were straight and slightly shorter than a full size katana. On the base of the blade, just above the guard on both swords was the Dino Thunder emblem.

Octoslaughter chuckled, "You think that a pair of swords are going to stop me?"

Ryan smiled beneath his faceplate, "The swords are nothing special big guy, _**I**_ am going to stop you."

Octoslaughter grunted and the two combatants resumed their furious melee. By this time, Ryan had gotten a lot better at blocking the tentacle slaps his foe liked to throw, however now that he had swords, he had a way to inflict a bit more pain. He stopped blocking them with the flat of the blade and instead blocked with the edge, sending sparks flying and making Octoslaughter roar in anguish. The monster changed tactics and shot his tentacles straight at Ryan, but soon realized his mistake. As the tentacles approached, Ryan crouched crossing the swords around his body, then leapt into the air with a spin, turning himself into a giant blender. The tentacles hit nothing but blades and flew to pieces as Octoslaughter screamed in agony. Ryan landed in a crouching position and arose from it to see the once mighty foe, reduced to a creature writhing in agony, barely able to stand. He walked in close and grabbed the monster by the throat.

"When I said go away, I meant it."

Ryan took a step back, his arms started to blur with the speed at which he swung his swords. Sparks erupted from all parts of Octoslaughters body as he staggered back from the blows. The blows slowed as Ryan finished his combo with a flick of his wrist. The flat of his sword struck the minion of evil under his chin and Octoslaughter launched into the air. Ryan crossed his swords in front of him and aimed upward as the Dino Thunder emblems on the swords started to glow.

"CRESCENT STRIKE!"

Ryan swept the twin swords in front of him and a crescent of orange energy launched at the monster. Octoslaughter let loose an scream of desperation as the beam of energy struck him and caused him to explode. Ryan let his arms drop in relief. It was over. He sheathed his swords behind his back and turned to the approaching forms of Tommy, Kira, Kim and Kat.

"Hi, guys. We won't be seeing him anymore. He had to leave", Ryan smiled underneath his helmet.

Tommy clapped him on the shoulder, "I know you really didn't want to do that, but unfortunately thats what it takes to keep the world safe. The uniform looks good on you though, man."

Ryan nodded, "Thanks, but I don't think you'll be seeing me in it much."

"I saw part of the battle, at least we know one part of the job you already have mastered."

Ryan looked puzzled, "Whats that?"

Tommy beamed inside his helmet, "Trash talking."

Kim laughed along with the others and gave Ryan a hug, glad that he was alright, "Remember Ryan, we have done this before. Now that Mesogog knows about you and your Ranger powers, you might not get a choice not to fight."

"Yeah, I guess thats possible. That mean you are staying too Kat?" Ryan said as he looked at the pink ninja hugging him.

"I'm Kimberly, thanks."

"Oh, guess we might need name tags for the twin ninjas, too."

Tommy just shook his head as Ryan fended off blows from the smaller of the pink clad ninjas.

* * *

Elsa trudged back into her masters lair. She knew she would be severely punished for her failure. Opening the doors, she strode into the room where Mesogog had been watching the events unfold from.

"You failed me Elsssssa... You know what that means for you."

She kneeled and began to explain herself, hoping he would spare her.

"My apologies master, I underestimated the power of the Rangers newest addition. If I had another chance, I could..."

"Oh you'll get another chance indeed", He interrupted her.

Elsa gave her master a puzzled look.

"Why do you look so surprised Elsa? True your monster failed, but in that failure you brought to light the enormous potential of the Umbracite Crystal. You merely infused the power of the crystal into an object, and it nearly decimated the Rangers. With the same technology you used previously you can merge the crystal permanently with the object, and its power would be far greater."

An evil smile crept over her features, "I shall begin immediately my master."

Mesogog turned back to the video monitors with a calm demeanor, "Be sure that you do."

* * *

Afternoon turned to evening and the Rangers were all back at Tommy's house getting a well earned rest. Ethan was still asleep. Kira and Tommy were awake again, having taken a four hour nap after coming back from the downtown park where Octoslaughter and Ryan had duked it out. Conner's swelling around his eye had gone down and it wasn't quite as red as before. Trent seemed to be the best off out of them all. He still had some slight bruising around his neck, but otherwise seemed no worse for the wear, though Tommy surmised most of that was just putting on a strong front as he usually did. The five older people of the group sat on his back porch and enjoyed the night air with a few adult beverages.

"You know Kim, I didn't think I'd ever see you with a beer in your hand, not after seeing you so adamant about being against it in High School."

Kim sighed, "Well, I didn't expect it either, but the training in Florida was just so damn stressful sometimes. I loved doing it for fun when I was in Angel Grove, but down in Florida, it became a job. A job with expectations to meet, and everyone hounding you to push harder. It even had shitty co-workers."

Ryan coughed on his sip of beer at that remark.

Kim rolled her eyes and continued, "I went bar hunting one night because I didn't want to go back to the apartment. I didn't do it every night, and I never drank heavily so you don't have to sign me up for AA meetings or anything like that. It was just nice to be alone with my own thoughts for a while and not to have to go home. Scott, however, had friends that would still frequent the bars late at night and it didn't take long for him to find out what I was doing when I would come home later than usual. So I would never go to the same bar. I mixed it up and found everything from holes in the wall, to hotel bars, sports bars, and even a couple gay bars. Those were the best by the way, no guys hit on me, and I still say the lesbians could sense I was straight."

All five of them burst out laughing and after it died she kept going, "One night after a particularly stressful practice and argument with Scott, I was determined to find a place I could call my own. My own personal "Cheers" if you will. I missed the company of people I could talk to and vent to, like I could with the other Rangers. So I found a nice little sports bar in the back corner of a shopping center. My first night there I apparently had a bit more than I had planned on. So the owner, being the good guy he was, asked this loser over here to make sure I got home okay."

Ryan gave her an indignant frown, "Loser? I'll have you know that I repeatedly beat your ass in Wii bowling."

She rolled her eyes, "Anyway, you all know the rest of the story and how it turned out. I'm just glad I met him. It saved my life."

"I'm rather glad you did too, Kim", Tommy said. "This guy just saved my life and four more inside, plus he brought you back to California where you belong."

"Okay, enough with this mushy crap, I defend good people thats all. Thats part of the reason I was in the Air Force."

"That's all well and good, but there are plenty of bad people who live in this country too", Hayley pointed out.

Ryan nodded, "True, but I choose to look at it this way. The military doesn't defend bad people in this country. It defends their right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. As cliche as that sounds, it is the exact truth. What people choose to do with that freedom makes them good or bad, and the moment their indulgence of the right to freedom infringes on someone else's freedoms, they lose theirs. Sure there are people who get away with things and there are corrupt people who never get caught because of other corrupt people willing to protect them, but for the most part it rings true."

"Huh", Tommy thought out loud. "I would have never suspected you for an idealist."

Ryan smiled as he noticed grins on everyone else's faces, "Nah, just an optimist."

Tommy nodded, "So the glass is half full huh?"

Ryan laughed and looked at his bottle of now empty Strongbow, "Actually sir, its pretty empty at the moment. This looks like a good time for a beer run to the fridge."

Kim smiled at him, "Yeah, I'll have another."

Tommy raised his hand.

"Hayley?", Ryan asked.

Hayley shook her head while trying to take a sip as if to say "No I'm still nursing this one cause I'm a lightweight and I know it", which prompted a round of laughter.

Ryan turned to Kat while still smiling from the laugh he had just finished, "What about you, Kat?"

"I'm okay, thanks."

He looked at the bottle in her hands, "But you're empty too, and have been for the past ten minutes."

She had seen enough of Ryan's personality to sense when he was being a bit saucy, so she decided to fight fire with fire.

"Ryan, are you trying to get me drunk to take advantage of me?"

Knowing she had taken the bait, only increased the size of the grin he now wore. "I dunno, will it work?"

He heard a whisper of "oh damn" from Tommy behind him, which only made him grin wider.

"I'm not sure yet", She replied. "Guess the only way to know is to find out huh?"

_Dammit, wasn't expecting him to take it farther_,She thought. _Guess round one is his._

"Back in a jiffy", Ryan said as he retreated inside to grab a few more cold beverages.

Kat turned to Kim, who was a lot more comfortable sitting next to Tommy than she had been when she had first shown up. "So let me get something straight on Ryan here."

"Okay", Kim said with a puzzled look on her face.

"He likes NASCAR, heavy metal music, sushi, Strongbow, and meteorology? You sure know how to pick the diverse ones don't you?"

Kim smiled at her friend as she finished off her beer with a long final sip, "You forgot karaoke on that list."

"He sings?"

"Oh yes", Kim giggled. "It's not the best singing you've ever heard before, but it isn't horrible. Just don't ever let him know I said that though, cause it'll all go to his head and..." Kim put her hands on either side of her head, made an expanding gesture with her hands and blew her cheeks out.

The visual prompted all four of them to erupt into laughter just as Ryan came back with four cold drinks.

"Why do I get the feeling that I was somehow involved in that laughter?"

Kat smiled up at him as she took a beer from his hands, "Kim was just telling us about your aspirations for American Idol."

This comment was followed by snickering all around as Ryan sat back down. "Oh I see, Kim told you about how I like to do karaoke occasionally. Firstly in my defense, its just karaoke, plenty of people do it far worse than I. Secondly, Kim has no room to talk."

This made Kim gulp hard on her freshly opened beer, "Oh no no no no"

Ignoring the interruption he pressed on, "She tried to do a duet with me one night, I wish we had taped it or made a video with my brother's phone. I admit not some of my best work, but at least I wasn't as tone deaf as the pink princess over here."

"Hey now", Kim protested. "The whole room cheered for me when I walked off stage!"

Ryan laughed at her "Kim, they were glad you left the stage and quit torturing them. Plus the fact that you are hot and half the guys in the room wanted to take you home with them. You could have sang it like Yoko!"

Kat slapped Ryan on the arm while Tommy and Hayley tried to hide their obvious amusement. "That's so cruel!"

"Hey, you've never heard her sing."

They all laughed while Kim tried hard to keep the indignant look on her face. After a moment or two though, she couldn't hide the fact that it rather amused her as well. "Okay, okay. So thats why you were playing bouncer the rest of the night against all the guys coming to congratulate me on my performance."

Ryan and Kim were now in sibling banter mode and didn't care that there were onlookers around. Ryan made a gesture with both hands simulating sex at her as if to insinuate all they were trying to do was get into her pants. She just sighed with a smile and flipped him off.

Ryan began to laugh hard and tried to stifle it as he remembered they were in mixed company. "Kim, maybe we shouldn't discuss this with an audience, they might think ill of us afterward."

Tommy watched the playful banter between Kim and Ryan with amusement and a bit of shock. Where had the sweet innocent girl from Angel Grove that he had known gone? Her time in Florida had changed her in so many ways. Of course, being nearly beaten to death probably had a lot to do with it. Mostly though, it seemed as if she had taken off the rose colored glasses and seen the world for what it really was. A rude awakening for sure, but one he had experienced for himself as well. She seemed infinitely more confident in her own skin, and something about that and her casual vulgarity made him even more interested in her than he had been in High School.

Kim waved a hand in front of Tommy's face, "Yoo hoo! Where did you go?"

Tommy grinned sheepishly, "Sorry about that, kinda got lost in my own thoughts for a moment."

"Well you seemed to be doing it while staring a hole through my head", Kim replied.

The sheepish grin got worse and Tommy tried to hide it by looking away. "I was just thinking about how glad I am to have both of you back in my life" The sheepishness of his grin fell away as he looked at Ryan. "and how glad I am that you brought a new friend into the fold."

Ryan raised his beer into the middle of the group, covering for Tommy and silently promising himself to have a talk with the man later.

"To friends, old and new."

Everyone smiled and raised their own drinks and echoed, "To friends."

Everyone withdrew their drinks and took a sip in honor of the toast. The sentiment echoed through the group as each one immersed themselves in their own thoughts for a moment. Ryan broke through after a moment with a revelation.

"Wow Hayley, half your beer disappeared after that toast."

She grinned, "Bottle has a hole in it."

Tommy decided now was as good a time as ever to do it. He got up from the group and excused himself to go inside, "I'll be right back. I'm going to go check to see how they are doing inside."

The four remaining on the back porch, nodded at him and watched him go through the door.

Tommy walked through the kitchen and into the living room where the kids were camped out on the couches. They were all fast asleep in various uncomfortable positions. He couldn't help but wonder how they got that way. Suddenly one of them started to snore. He immediately looked to Conner, no snoring there. He panned his gaze over to the sleeping form of Kira and couldn't help but try to stifle his amusement. There she was, hanging halfway off of one of the couches with one of Tommy's spare blankets kicked off onto the floor. Her head was kinked over the edge of the couch with a tiny line of drool coming out of her mouth. _No wonder shes snoring, she is practically upside down._ With a gigantic grin still on his face, he gently helped her still sleeping form back onto the couch. He couldn't help but feel a strong sense of pride for all of them. He trained them all from being ordinary teenagers, to being the planets first line of defense against evil. The courage they showed earlier against Octoslaughter reminded him of the original Ranger teams. He bent down to pick up the blanket that was laying on the floor, and gently draped it over Kira. He looked up to find Kim watching him from the doorway to the kitchen and smiled at her. Quietly, Tommy snuck his way out of the maze of teeenage bodies and walked up to where Kim was leaning against the doorway.

"You care about them a lot don't you?"

Tommy sighed and looked out upon the subject of her question, "Yeah, for all its worth, they are like my kids. Every time they go out to fight another of Mesogog's monsters I'm scared they may not all come back. The only good part is that I get to join them and try to make sure they do come back."

Kim wrapped her arms around Tommy and gave him a hug. He was startled at first but settled into it and wrapped his arms around her back. Oh, how he had missed the feel of her embrace. He rested his chin on the top of her head for a moment.

"I have you, Kat and Ryan to thank for saving their lives. Without you, I would have lost them all and probably myself along with them. But most importantly, Mesogog would have won and earth would now be his."

Kim leaned her head back and smiled up at him, "We are Power Rangers, we couldn't let evil win. And we are also your friends, so we couldn't let you be defeated either."

Tommy looked down at her and he got swept away in an overwhelming wave of nostalgia. He stared down into her beautiful big doe brown eyes and knew it was entirely possible for him to get lost in them again. She had changed so much over the years, but the core of her being, the things that he had fallen in love with were still there. Her beautiful personality had been hardened and sullied by the things she had been forced to endure. She had faint scars on her neck that through talking with Ryan, he knew were from what she had gone through in Florida. The thought that he hadn't been there to protect her from the vicious cruelty of one man tore him apart inside. Through it all however, she had endured, and now stood here in his arms, a completely different woman, yet exactly the same.

Kim wasn't entirely sure what she had been thinking when she put her arms around him. She just knew that she felt the need to hold him. For her, for him, she wasn't entirely sure, but she knew it felt right. He was far different than the boy she had known in high school. For one thing, his hair was shorter, but it was more than that. He carried himself more confidently than he ever had before. Perhaps it was that he had so much more life experience now that he was older. He sure hadn't had it in high school. Perhaps it was his years of leadership of the Ranger teams past and present. That train of thought always led to guilt about leaving the team to chase her dreams though. Whatever the case was, looking back into his gorgeous chocolate brown orbs still made her weak in the knees. After all these years, she could still so easily fall for this man.

Before they knew what was happening they were unconsciously leaning towards each others lips. It was if there was a gravitational pull between them which was impossible to resist. Just before their lips met however, they were broken from their moment by a loud snore. Tommy smiled as he knew the moment was lost and began to chuckle but at the cruel irony of fate, and also at the fact that Kira had slid halfway off the couch once again and was making enough of a racket to make a chainsaw seem quiet.

Tommy broke their embrace first, "I'll be right back, I'm going to move her to one of the guest beds so she doesn't wake the others or doesn't fall off the couch in the middle of the night."

"Doesn't that leave you with only two other guest rooms?"

"You and Kat spent the night at each others' houses before in High School right? You two can take one if you want and give Ryan the other."

"Yeah, that's fine. I'll go back outside and let them know."

As Kim turned to leave, Tommy let out a huge yawn. Kim looked at him as if he had been a five year old with his hand in the cookie jar. He tried to wave her off mid yawn but all that did was make her laugh.

"You're right Tommy, we could all probably use the rest. I'll tell them to wrap it up."

"Yeah that sounds like a good idea. Mesogog could have more trouble on the loose tomorrow and we need to be rested."

Kim headed back outside through the kitchen while Tommy watched her leave. He then turned back to the living room and easily scooped up Kira's sleeping form. Quietly and carefully, he tip-toed around Ethan's prone form, trying not to step on him. As he cleared the blue Ranger's prone form, he sighed with relief and took Kira down the hall, into one of the spare bedrooms. He put her on the bed and the movement roused her from her peaceful, if noisy, slumber. Kira looked up at him with sleepy eyes and complained softly.

"Dr. O? What are you doing?"

Tommy just smiled at her, "You were about to slide off the couch. I'm putting you in one of my guest rooms so you don't hurt yourself."

She nodded and began to slip underneath the bed covers, "Okay, just tell Conner to stay off the table. My pterodactyl is not going to lay any metal eggs for him to saw in half."

Tommy barely held back a burst of laughter while nodding at her and pulling the covers up over her. He slipped out of the room quietly and went back in the direction of the kitchen.

* * *

Kim went back outside to the back porch. All three of the people she had left there were surprisingly quiet, seeing as how loud they were before. She looked at their faces and saw that they were relaxed, happy but obviously tired. It had been a long day.

Kim smiled as she looked at the three of them, "Looks like the day has finally caught up to all of us."

Hayley agreed, "Yeah, I don't know about Kat or Ryan, but I've been up a long time today."

Kat just shook her head with a smile, "No, I'm sure we are both right there with you. Remember, the ninjetti suits just give you access to abilities, you still have to rely on your own strength to do them. As far as Ryan goes, I can remember morphing and getting into a fight drains you a bit, win or lose. Even though I've never had these Ranger powers, I'm sure they are pretty similar to the ones we had, seeing as how you and Tommy designed them."

"Yeah I could go for about forty winks. What about Conner and the others though? They didn't morph today except for Kira and they still hit the sack early. I can remember in my teenage years staying up well past midnight every weekend", Ryan asked Hayley.

"Well just think about it. They are recovering from severe injuries. That alone would tire someone out. Add to it the fact that the accelerated healing uses more energy and raw materials to repair their bodies, and you have tired teenagers who eat like ravenous pigs and then go sleep it off for ten hours or more."

Kat chuckled and looked at Kim, "Yeah I know, Kim and I were both having Rocky flashbacks during dinner."

"So that would explain why Ethan drank that whole gallon of milk Tommy had in his fridge over the course of the day. He has a broken arm and he needs the calcium", Ryan mused out loud.

Hayley nodded, "Exactly. He is giving his body what it needs for repair. In fact, it reminds me of a friend of mine who was taking psychology back at the university Tommy and I went to. She was writing her thesis on the notion that our unconscious minds tell us what materials our bodies need for maintenance and repair through the craving of certain foods. So if you were low on nerve conduction materials, you start craving bananas, stuff like that."

Ryan laughed at her, "At least that explains why pregnant women love ice cream, fat and calcium all in one."

Hayley nodded vigorously, "Oh yeah, she went deep into that part of it. Pregnant women and their hormone imbalances making them even more susceptible to the influence of their unconscious minds."

Kim held her head, "Holy shit, now I'm getting Billy flashbacks."

Being the only one to get the joke, Kat laughed, "Oh yes, if he wasn't still on another planet we would have to play cupid with him and Hayley."

"Woah woah, back that up", Ryan interrupted. "Another planet? You're telling me that not only do other habitable planets exist, but that a friend of yours is living on one and you know about it?."

Kat just smiled at him, "Yeah, all three of us do, he's been there about seven years now if my memory serves me right."

Ryan still looked like a caveman that had just seen fire for the first time, "Holy crap. I hope someone is there with him and he isn't alone. Seven years alone I'd think would make someone go completely batty."

Kat filled in more details as she noticed Kim was enjoying the show of her blowing his mind, "Nah, he isn't there alone. In fact, he went there because he started to fall for an Aquitian woman named Cestria. The relationship didn't work out in the end, because of what he termed as "fundamental philosophical differences" and "physical incompatibilities.

Kim snorted, "Yeah thats how Billy would put it alright."

"But they are still friends and he stayed to help them out with a few key technologies they were developing to make space travel a bit easier for them. See they evolved to breathe water and not air, but they found it easier to work and live in air environments. So they wore breathing equipment on their heads and took them off at night when they went to sleep in shallow pools of water. Billy and I were fascinated by the whole thing and would pester Cestro and Delphine about it for hours."

Ryan held up the conversation again after trying to process all these incredible insights that were being thrown at him like candy at a parade, "Okay, one second here. So you mean to tell me that aliens exist and your friend dated one? Are you serious, or are you just weaving a hair-brained story to flip me out?"

Kim put a hand on his shoulder, "Actually its all true. Now, Billy being on another planet and all the stuff she just told you was news to me too, but aliens do exist and I knew too. Our first Ranger mentor was known as Zordon who was an inter-dimensional being caught in a time warp. His assistant was a sentient robot named Alpha 5. Hell, I even went to another planet called Phaedos to get the powers that let me have that nifty pink ninja suit that Kat and I can throw on."

"You said you got them at a secret ninja temple or something!"

Kim finished his sentence, "On another planet..."

"Yeah, thats it, I'm done. If everything you girls just told me was true, I've had enough weirdness for one night. I'm going to bed", Ryan announced as he threw up his hands and headed for the door.

The girls just sat there silently staring at each other waiting for someone to crack. When they heard the door close behind Ryan however, they couldn't hold in the laughter any longer. Peals of laughter rolled out of the three girls like water bursting forth from a dam. Kim and Kat were holding their sides and later confessed to each other that they might have peed a bit. Hayley was the first to recover though, being less familiar with the people and places involved in their story.

"Well I'm so glad you two have a great sense of humor. Most other women I know are so dull", She complimented them.

Kim replied while wiping tears from her eyes, "Oh yeah, I know what you mean. Speaking of being dull though, I think its time we ended this and headed for bed. Tommy wants a rested team for tomorrow just incase Mesogog isn't done with us yet."

Hayley nodded, "I agree. I'm sure he isn't but maybe he will let us have the day off tomorrow. I'll see you all in the morning sometime, I'm going to drive myself home for the night."

Kim called after her as Halyey strode toward her car around the corner of the house, "You okay to drive?"

Hayley turned around and shot her a smile, "I went to college Kim. Besides, two beers in five hours, doesn't take a genius to figure that math out."

Kim smiled back, "Just lookin out for ya."

"Thanks, I appreciate it", Hayley said with finality as she turned back toward her car and made her way around the side of the house.

Kim turned back to Kat who had a couple of empty bottles in her hands. She motioned towards the door with a smile.

"Shall we?"

"Sure, Kim. By the way, seeing as how there is only one spare bed left, and I don't know this town well, I was planning on crashing here. You sharing with me or with Ryan?"

Kim grinned evilly at her as she held the kitchen door open, "Why don't I take the other bed and YOU crawl in with Ryan."

Kat's eyes widened as she held up her hands after gently placing the bottles into the trash can beside the door, "What? Why would I do that?"

Kim eyed her, posing to her with her hands on her hips, "Oh please. You both have been making eyes at each other for the past couple days, not to mention the open flirting you did right in front of us on the back porch tonight. You might have been able to hide it from me before that, but Ryan's reactions I know as well as my own."

"I don't know if I should do that..."

"Besides", Kim interrupted her. "You wanna see him get all red in the face and embarassed? I guarantee he will think its me in the middle of the night, won't try anything with you, and still wake up all awkward and embarrassed in the morning. It'll be fun."

Kat stared at Kim with an incredulous stare while Kim just grinned from ear to ear. _Maybe it couldn't hurt. I'd get to be close to him tonight, and it IS awful cute when he is red in the face._

"Okay okay, but just for laughs in the morning, no taking pictures and no making more out of it than it is. Got it?"

Kim nodded at her, "Agreed. This is all for the benefit of messing with him, not with you."

The girls shook hands and now both shared an evil grin. Kat then shook her head after thinking about it for a moment.

"We are horrible. Do you realize that?"

Kim just continued her grin, "I'm not the same Kimberly you knew in high school, Kat. Gone is the sweet, innocent, prissy gymnast. She got a wake up call in Florida, it was the real world calling. I did however keep my sense of humor and mischief."

Kim turned away and walked in the door, with a giggling and head shaking Kat behind her.

* * *

Mesogog paced his throne room with step after thunderous step. Never had he known such impatience as he was feeling at the moment. Zeltrax had finally recovered from his injuries enough to be of some use, however Elsa was the only one he trusted enough with his equipment. He was allowing Mercer to taint his decisions far too much lately. He had allowed Elsa to complete this latest task without him helping her or shouting at her that she was too slow. He knew she could complete the task, whether it would work or not was a different story. He also knew that to do it right would take time, so for now he would wait. Failure or not, the situation he was now in gave him enough concern that he knew... Something must be done about he and Mercer sharing a body, and soon.

Zeltrax entered the throne room and bowed to Mesogog. He immediately stopped his pacing and turned toward the door as his newly healed henchman strode through the doors.

Mesogog looked down at him, "Speak."

Zeltrax continued to look at the floor in front of him and obeyed his master, "I Zeltrax am healed by your power my lord. Thank you for sparing me so that I may continue to serve you. I will not fail you again."

"No Zeltrax, you won't. Because if you do, I'll kill you myself. Be warned, the next time you fail, one way or another, shall be your lassst", He hissed at him.

With that bit of information resonating through his thick skull, Zeltrax rose from the ground and stood in front of Mesogog, awaiting his orders.

"Be gone from my sight, Zeltrax. I will call for you when you are needed."

"Yes, my lord", Zeltrax said with a bow. He then turned toward the door sharply and exited the room in a militaristic fashion.

Satisfied with how he had handled his henchman, Mesogog felt a resurgence in his power over Mercer's body, and in his evil power. Enough waiting.

"ELSSSA!", He roared.

A few moments later Elsa burst into the room from closed doors across from the throne room. She positioned herself in front of him and bowed to him.

"I am here, my master. What do you require?"

Mesogog tried to look as perturbed as possible, "What I require is an update on your progress."

Elsa arose from her bow and smiled at her master, "No update is required, master. In fact I was just about to come inform you that the final preparations are almost complete. We will begin the procedure shortly."

"Good, Elsa", Mesogog grinned. "Then I shall accompany you back to the lab and I will witness the procedure for myself."

"I was hoping you would, my master", She beamed with pride.

As they walked down to the lab she couldn't help feeling proud of her accomplishment. Her previous experiment with the Umbracite Crystal had ended in failure. However, it being a failure showed her that just a bit more power would have ended in victory. Her previous experiment was infusing an inanimate object with the crystals power. This would be something entirely different.

They entered the lab and Mesogog was greeted with panels of electronics lit up like Christmas trees. Inside the infusion chamber was a small cage, inside of which he could not see at this distance. He grew bored with the lab shortly however, as he knew very well what was inside it.

"Explain, Elsa."

"With pleasure", She replied. "As you can see from the monitors, I am not doing a mere infusion as I had previously. As you so wisely suggested earlier, I chose a procedure that will fully integrate the power from the entire crystal into our subject. If you think Octoslaughter had been powerful, my latest creation will be tenfold stronger."

Mesogog practically purred with delight, "Exxcellent. So what have you chosen as a subject this time?"

"Well before, I had chosen an inanimate object. I realize now this was a mistake as some of the power had gone into animating the subject I had chosen. This time I chose a live subject, so that all the crystals energy will go to its powers. I think you'll be pleased."

"Are you ready to begin?", He asked her.

"Yes, my master."

"Then do so."

Without another word Elsa lowered a dimmed visor to her eyes, and threw a giant switch on the lefthand side of the labs control board. The room immediately filled with the same dark brown light as before. It was more intense than staring into the sun, yet it was also as black as night and felt twice as evil. Mesogog let the feeling of the light flow through him and reveled in the feeling of Mercer shrinking away from it. When the light subsided he was greeted by the sight of a six foot tall green lizard. Its tail was curled behind it in a peculiar way. It had bony ridge above each eye, two specks for a nose and a jaw about as big as his own. It moved like you would expect a six foot tall lizard to, but you could tell it dripped evil from every pore. It walked toward Mesogog and in an asexual yet dark voice it spoke.

"Greetings, master. You may call me Chameloron."


End file.
